£^  v -'. 


A    SUMMARY 


BIBLICAL  ANTIQUITIES: 


FOB   THB   CU 


anfc  /otnilifs. 


BI  JOHN  W.  NEVIN,  D.D. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

AMERICAN    SUNDAY-SCHOOL   UNION, 

11JJ  CHESTNUT  STREJCT. 


r 
Nos.  8  A  10  BIHLK   HOUSE,  ASTOR   PLACE. 


KirracD  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1849,  by  tt» 

AMKRICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  UNIOft 
IB  the  Clrrk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  Dirtrn  t  of  P.  n 


49-  No  books  are  published  by  the  AMKRICAN  SUNDAT-ACHOOI  UNION 
without  the  sanction  of  the  Committee  of  Publication,  cocs:-*lng  of 
Ir-urteen  members,  froLi  the  following  denominations  of  Chrirtians,  v ii 
Baptint,  Methodifit,  Congregationalint,  Kpi«ropal,  Presbytrrian.  and  Re- 
formed Dutch.  Not  more  than  three  of  the  members  can  <••  of  tb/> 
none  dr nomination,  and  no  book  can  be  published  to  which  any  mem- 
bra of  the  Committee  shall  object 


STACK 
ANNEX 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  work  was  undertaken  chiefly  with  a 
new  of  contributing  some  help  to  the  great  cause  of 
Sunday-school  education.  That  something  of  the  kind 
is  much  wanted,  for  the  use  of  common  instructors,  in 
the  work  of  such  education,  cannot  be  doubted.  The 
books  in  which  such  information  as  it  is  intended  to 
contain  is  to  be  found,  are  not  within  the  reach  of  most 
of  those  who  are  called  to  take  upon  them  this  charac- 
ter ;  and  if  they  were,  they  are  not  adapted  to  answer 
effectually  the  want  that  is  felt  in  the  present  case. 
Most  of  them  have  been  written  for  the  use  of  such  aa 
have  far  more  than  common  advantages  of  education 
and  learning,  whose  business  leads  them  to  much  read- 
ing, and  whose  minds  are  trained  to  diligence  and 
patience  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  Even  the  few 
which  have  been  designed  for  more  popular  and  common 
use,  are  such  that  their  advantages  can  never  extend  to 
the  great  majority  of  those  who  read  the  Bible :  they 
are  too  large,  and,  of  course,  too  expensive  to*  be  gene- 
rally procured ;  they  are  too  diffuse,  and  too  much  ele- 
vated in  style,  or  darkened  with  learning,  to  be  gene- 
rally read  or  understood.  Since  the  establishment  of 
Sunday-schools,  various  short  sketches  of  information 
on  some  particular  points  of  Jewish  Antiquities  have 
been  supplied  in  differ*  nt  publications  intended  for  their 
use,  which  have,  no  doubt,  answered  a  valuable  pur- 
pose, so  far  as  they  extended ;  but  all  the  advantage 
which  such  scattered  fragments  can  secure  must  mani- 
festly be  very  limited  and  imperfect,  in  comparison 
with  what  might  be,  and  ought  to  be,  derived  from  thig 
auarter  of  scripture  illustration.  Evidently,  a  short, 
1*  5 


6  PREFACE 

simp/e,  systematic  coupilation,  bringing  together,  with 
Dut  technical  phrase  or  learned  discussion,  the  most 
essential  points  of  the  whole  subject,  in  regular  order, 
into  small  and  convenient  cempass,  is  the  only  thing 
which  can  adequately  meet  the  necessity  that  is  expe- 
rienced in  this  matter. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  present  attempt  may  not  be  with- 
out something  of  its  intended  use,  in  furnishing  such  a 
compilation,  easy  to  be  procured  and  easy  to  be  read, 
for  the  assistance  of  teachers.  If  it  should  in  any 
measure  answer  this  design,  it  will  accomplish  an  object 
of  vast  usefulness.  If,  however,  the  remarks  which 
have  already  been  made  are  well  founded,  a  work  cr 
this  kind  may  be  reasonably  expected  to  be  yet  more 
extensively  useful.  As  a  help  to  the  intelligent  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures,  such  a  compilation,  if  not  greatly 
defective  in  its  form,  is,  no  doubt,  better  suited  for  the 
use  of  all  common  readers,  than  any  larger  work. 

It  needs  very  little  reflection,  to  be  convinced  of  the 
importance  of  having  some  acquaintance  with  the  cir- 
cumstances, natural  and  moral,  of  the  time  and  country 
in  which  the  Bible  was  written,  in  order  to  read  it  with 
understanding.  Though  an  inspired  book,  its  language 
and  style  have  been  wisely  conformed  to  the  manner  of 
tnen,  for  whose  use  it  was  designed ;  of  course  con- 
formed, in  these  respects,  to  the  particular  manner  of 
the  people  to  whom  it  was  at  first  directly  communi- 
cated. Holy  men  of  old  spake  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  but  they  were  suffered,  at  the  same 
time,  to  speak  and  write  in  that  style  which  the  general 
usage  of  the  age,  modified  by  his  own  peculiar  genius 
and  taste,  naturally  led  each  one  to  adopt.  Hence,  the 
sacred  books  of  Scripture,  like  other  books,  are  stamped 
throughout  with  the  lively  impression  of  the  place  and 
period  in  which  they  were  originally  published.  It  is 
found  not  only  in  the  language  itself,  but  in  unnum- 
bered references,  direct  and  indirect,  to  the  existing 
state  of  things  among  those  who  were  appointed  first  to 
receive  them.  Historical  facts,  objects  of  surrounding 
nature,  the  productions  of  art,  with  domestic,  social, 
religious,  and  civil  usages,  are  continually  urged  before 


PREFACE.  7 

the  reader's  mind,  and  noticed  as  things  with  which  he 
is  supposed  to  be  perfectly  familiar.  And  thus  familiar 
they  were  to  the  ancient  Jew.  But  widely  different  is 
our  situation  in  this  respect.  Many  hundred  years 
separate  us  from  the  times  of  original  revelation.  And 
if  Time  had  left  the  physical  and  moral  scenery  of 
Israel's  ancient  land  untouched,  instead  of  turning  all 
into  a  waste,  it  would  still  be  many  hundred  miles 
remote  from  the  spot  of  our  dwelling.  With  a  different 
climate,  we  have  different  feelings ;  with  a  different 
location,  different  forms  of  nature  around  us ;  with  a 
different  education,  a  widely  different  manner  cf  life. 
We  are  placed,  therefore,  under  a  double  difficulty, 
when  we  come  thus  circumstanced  to  read  the  Bible. 
We  are  destitute  of  the  knowledge  and  feelings  of  the 
ancient  Jew,  and,  at  the  same  time,  *ve  have  notions 
and  views  of  our  own,  which  we  are  constantly  liable  to 
substitute  in  their  stead.  "Hence,  if  no  remedy  be  sup- 
plied, we  must  often  be  left  altogether  in  the  dark,  by 
meeting  with  terms  and  images,  the  objects  of  which 
are  utterly  unknown ;  and  often  we  shall  derive  to  our- 
selves an  entirely  strange  and  unfounded  conception  of 
the  writer's  meaning,  by  affixing  ideas  to  other  images 
and  terms,  such  as  our  habits  of  thought  and  speech 
may  suggest,  but  which  are  foreign,  in  no  small  degree, 
from  the  usage  of  oriental  antiquity. 

What  then  is  the  remedy  for  this  inconvenience  ? 
Evidently  to  seek  acquaintance  with  the  time,  and  the 
region,  and  the  people,  with  which  the  Bible  had  to  do 
in  its  first  revelation : — as  far  as  possible,  become  fami- 
liar with  the  history  of  the  Jewish  nation,  the  scenery 
of  Palestine,  the  religion,  government  and  manners  of 
its  ancient  wonderful  people.  To  read  the  Bible,  in 
many  parts,  with  a  proper  sense  of  its  meaning,  we 
need  so  much  familiarity  with  these  things  as  to  be  able 
to  transport  our  minds  away  from  all  around  us,  and  to 
clothe  them,  in  the  midst  of  Judea  itself,  with  all  the 
moral  drapery  that  hung  about  the  Israelitish  spirit  ages 
ago.  We  need  to  be  conversant  with  the  mountains, 
the  plains  and  the  streams  ;  .the  beasts  of  the  field  and 
the  birds  of  the  air :  the  labours  of  the  farmer  and  the 


PREFACE. 

habits  of  the  shepherd ;  we  need  to  walk,  in  fancy '§ 
vivid  vision,  through  the  streets  of  Jerusalem;  to  min- 
gle with  the  inmates  of  the  Jewish  dwelling  ;  to  parti- 
cipate in  their  seasons  of  festive  joy,  and  to  sympathize 
with  their  sorrow  in  the  day  of  calamity  and  bereaving 
death ;  we  need  to  go  up  to  the  temple,  to  unite  in  its 
worship,  to  behold  its  solemn  rites,  and  to  admire  the 
beautiful  grandeur  of  its  scene.  True,  indeed,  exten- 
sive acquaintance  with  these  things  is  to  be  expected 
only  in  the  scholar ;  the  common  reader  of  the  Bible  is 
not  favoured  with  equal  opportunity ;  but  is  he  there- 
fore to  content  himself  with  entire  ignorance  ?  Assur- 
edly not.  The  fact  that  such  knowledge  is  wanted 
now,  through  the  providence  of  God,  to  illustrate  every 
page  of  the  Bible,  evinces  it  to  be  the  will  of  God  that 
all  should,  as  far  as  they  have  the  power,  endeavour 
to  acquire  it.  The  same  fact  must  lead  every  person 
who  loves  the  Bible  diligently  to  seek  it,  with  every 
other  help  that  may,  under  the  blessing  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  contribute  to  the  profitable  study  of  the  pre- 
cious book 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GEOGRAPHY    AND    CLIMATE. 

SECTION  1.   Of  the  Names  and  Divisions  of  the  Holy  Land ifl 

General  names,  19.  Ancient  divisions — Divisions  in  th»  time  of 
Christ,  20. 

SECT.  2.   Of  the  general  Face  of  the  Country 21 

Mountains,  21.  Plains,  23.  Deserts,  23.  Rivers,  24.  Lakes,  25. 
General  advantages,  25. 

SECT.  3.   Of  Climate 2fi 

Seasons— Drought,  2G.  Dew,  26.  Rains,  27.  Winds  The  Si 
moom,  29. 

CHAPTER  H. 

'     KATURAL    HISTORY. 

SECT.  1.   Of  Vegetable  Productions 30 

I.  WILD  TREES:  The  Cedar,  30.  The  Oak,  31.  The  Terebinth, 
32.  The  Fir  and  others — Shittim  wood,  33.  Gopher  wood — 
Cinnamon,  Cassia  and  Frankincense  trees,  34.  II.  CULTIVATED 
TREES:  The  Olive,  35.  The  Fig  tree,  36.  The  Sycamore— 
The  Pomegranate  tree,  37.  The  Apple  tree — The  Palm,  39. 
The  Balsam  tree — The  Almond  tree  —  The  Vine,  40.  Ill 
PLANTS  :  Useful  Herbs,  42.  Weeds,  43.  Grain — General  fruit- 
fulness  in  ancient  times,  44.  Present  desolation,  45. 

2.   Of  Animals 46 

I.  QfAtmrpEus  :  Horse,  45.  Ox — Ass,  46.  Mule,  47.  Camel — 
Sheep,  48.  Goat,  49.  Dog,  50.  Hog  -Lion,  61.  Unicorn,  5'/ 

I 


CONTENTS. 

II  BiRDh.  o3  III.  WATER  ANIMALS:  Whale — Leviathan, 63.  Be- 
hemoth, 54  IV.  REPTILES  :  Dragon,  54.  Serpents,  65.  SCOT 
pion,  66.  V.  INSECTS  :  The  Bee — The  Locust,  6(5. 


CHAPTER  I1L 

DWELLINGS    AND    HOUSEHOLD    ACCOMMODATIONS. 

BE;T.  1.   Of  Dwellings 67 

Tenta— Houses,  68.  Porch — Court,  69.  Roof,  GO.  Materials, 
01.  Cities— Gates,  62. 

SECT.  2.   Of  Furniture 62 

Carpets — Beds  and  Seats,  63.  Lamp — Pots  and  Cups — Bottles, 
63.  Table—Table-couch,  64.  Mill,  66.  Ovens,  GO. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

OCCUPATIONS. 

SECT.  1.   Of  the  Pastoral  Life 67 

Its  origin,  67.  Ancient  prevalence  and  dignity,  68.  Care  of 
flocks,  69.  Wells,  70.  Produce — Cheese — Ancient  Butter  and 
Wool,  71.  Modern  Shepherds,  72.  Pastoral  Imagery,  7'2. 

SECT.  2.   Of  Husbandry 73 

The  Jews  a  nation  of  farmers,  74.  Plough,  75.  Harrow — Yoke, 
76.  Ox-goad — Sowing — Harvest,  77.  Threshing-floor — Thresh- 
ing instruments,  78.  Winnowing — Vineyards,  80.  Vintage — 
Wine-press — Wine,  81.  Emblems,  82.  Fruit  of  the  Olive — Oil- 
press,  88.  Oil  gardens — Honey,  84. 

fixer.  8.   Employments  of  Handicraft  and  Trade 86 

Cieneral  remarks,  86.  Trades  little  followed  before  the  captivity, 
held  in  different  esteem  afterwards,  87.  Commerce — Imports 
and  exports,  88.  Measures,  Weights  and  Coins — Measures  of 
length,  89.  Hollow  Measures,  Dry  and  Liquid,  90.  Money  ia 
early  times,  91.  Coins,  92. 

.  4.   Of  the  Learned  Profession* 98 

Tribe  of  Levi,  94.  Judges — General  learning,  95.  Prophets,  %. 
Scribes,  97.  Schools,  98. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DRESS,    MEALS,    SOCIAL    INTERCOURSE. 

BBCT.  1.  Of  Dress 


Cloth—  Colours,    98.     Camel's-hair—  Sackcloth—  The  Tunic,   100. 
The  Upper  Garment,  101.    The  Girdle,  102.    Sacred  Garment*-- 


CONTENTS  U 

Sandals  and  Shoes,  104.    The  Mitre- -The  Veil,  105.    Hair,  106. 
The  Beard,  107.     Ornaments,  108.     Wardrobes,  109. 

2.  Meals  and  Entertainments 110 

Preparation  of  Food,  110.  Time  of  Meals,  111.  Washings- 
Thanksgiving,  112.  Mode  of  Eating— Social  Feasts,  113.  Spi 
ritual  food,  114. 

SECT.  8.   Of  Social  Intercourse 116 

General  remarks,  116.     Style  of  Manners  in  the  East,  117.     Sa- 
lutations, 118.     Visits,  119.     Formality — Conversation,  121. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

DOMESTIC   CUSTOMS   AND    HABITS. 

SECT.  1.   Of  the  Marriage  Relation 122 

Early  Marriages,  122.  Contract — An  espoused  Wife,  123.  Wed- 
ding Customs,  124.  The  Marriage  Supper — Confirmation  of 
Marriage,  125.  Spiritual  Marri.ige,  126.  Marriage  Parables, 
127.  Polygamy,  130.  Divorce,  J81. 

SECT.  2.   Of  the  Relation  between  Parents  and  Children 182 

Desire  of  Children — Duty  of  marrying  a  childless  Brother's  widow, 
132.  Ceremonies  relating  to  Children — Names,  133.  Parental 
Authority— The  Birthright,  134.  Adoption,  136. 

HECT.  3.   Of  Slaves 136 

Character  of  Slavery  among  the  Jews,  136.  The  Steward- 
Slavery  among  other  nations,  137.  Branding,  138. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

niSKASES    AND    FUXEI AL    CUSTOMS. 

B«CT.  I.   Of  Diseases 139 

Origin  of  Sickness,  139.  Supernatural  Diseases — Demoniacal  Pos- 
sessions, 140.  Exorcism,  142.  The  stroke  of  Heaven  under 
the  form  of  natural  fatal  Diseases — Some  Diseases  the  chan- 
nels of  God's  anger  more  especially  than  others,  143.  Pestilence 
or  Plague — Leprosy,  144.  Sin  the  leprosy  of  the  soul,  147. 
Anointing  the  sick  with  oil,  148. 

BsfCT.  2.   Customs  that  attended  Death  and  Burial 149 

Expressions  of  grief.  149.  Embalming,  150.  Burial,  151.  Se- 
pulchres, 152.  Sheol  or  Hades,  154. 


i2  OflNTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIIL 

MISCELLANEOUS  MATTER. 

SECT-  1.   Of  Writing  ......................................................        15* 

Its   origin,    158.     Ancient   Materials   for  Writing  —  Books,    159 
Letters,  160. 


2.   Of  Music  and  Dancing  .............................................   16i 

Origin  and  design  of  Music,  161.  Harp  —  Psaltery  —  Organ  -Pipe 
—  Horn  —  Trumpet  —  Cymbal  —  Tabret,  1  02.  Sacred  Mutic  — 
Dancing,  168. 

SECT.  3.   Of  Garnet  and  Theatres  ...........................................  164 

Public  Shows,  164.  Games  of  Heathen,  not  Jewish,  custom  —  Gre- 
cian Games,  165.  Object  of  public  Games  —  Allusions  to  the 
Grecian  Games  in  the  New  Testament,  168.  Theatres  —  Gladia- 
tor Shows  —  Fights  with  Wild  Beasts,  170. 

SECT.  4.  Modes  of  Dividing  and  Reckoning  Time..  ......................  171 

Day8  —  Hours,  171.  Watches  —  The  Week,  173.  Months,  175. 
The  Year,  176.  Way  of  Counting,  177. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

POLITICAL    INSTITUTIONS. 

SECT.  1.  Patriarchal  Government 178 

Its  Nature — Origin,  178.     History,  179. 

SECT.  2.  Ancient  Israelitish  Government 182 

Ite  Author— Object,  182.  Nature— God  its  King,  183.  Idolatry 
185.  Destruction  of  the  Canaanites — Measures  to  prevent  inter- 
course with  Idolaters,  186.  Division  of  the  Land,  187.  Inhe- 
ritance, 188.  Governments  and  orders  of  the  individual  Tribes, 
189.  Genealogical  Tables,  190.  Judges,  191.  Tribe  of  Levi, 
192.  Kings,  193. 

J-'BCT.  8.  Jewish  Government  after  the  Captivity 194 

Under  the  Persians,  Greeks  and  Romans,  194.  Centurions — Pub- 
licans, 196.  Judges — Sanhedrim,  197.  Inferior  Court,  199, 
Insurrections,  200.  Expectations  of  the  Messiah,  201. 

RBCT.  4.   Of  Kings 202 

Robe— Diadem — Throne — Sceptre — Royal  Palace  and  Table,  203. 
— Approach  to  the  King,  204.  Journeys  attended  with  a  splen- 
did retinue — Royal  name,  205.  Counsellors — Prophets — Re- 
corder— Scribe — High-Priest — Governor  of  the  Palace — King's 
Companion — Life-gaard — Runners,  206.  Accc'int.  of  Archelnus, 
207. 


CONTENTS.  Itt 

SECT,  b    Of  Punishments 207 

Trials — Tr:a:  of  our  Lord,  207.  Design  of  Punishments — Sin  and 
Trespass  Offerings — Fines,  208.  Scourging,  209.  Confinement, 
210.  Retaliation — Excommunication,  211.  The  Blood-avenger. 
212.  Stoning,  21o  Crucifixion,  214. 

.  6.    Of  Military  Affairs 220 

How  Armies  were  r/ised,  220.  David's  army,  221.  Roman  arm* 
in  Judea — War -chariots,  222.  Elephants,  223.  DEFENXIVB 
WEAPONS:  Helmet — Breast-plate,  224.  Greaves  —  Girdle  — 
Shield,  225.  OFFENSIVE  WEAPONS  :  Sword,  225.  Spear — Jave- 
.  tin — Bow  and  Arrow,  220.  Sling — Engines  on  the  walls,  227. 
Battering-ram — Manner  of  fighting,  228.  Efl'ects  of  victory- 
Israelites  more  humane  than  other  people,  229. 


PART    II. 


CHAPTER  L 

GENERAL    HISTORY   OF    RELIGION. 

Origin  of  the  Church,  235.  Its  General  Scheme  and  Relation  to  the 
World,  237.  Its  Unity,  238 — and  Diversities  of  Outward  Con- 
stitution withal,  240.  State  before  the  Flood — Call  of  Abraham, 
241.  Organization  of  the  Jewish  Church — General  Plan  of  the 
Jewish  State ;  different  Sorts  of  Laws,  242.  The  Moral  Law, 
243.  Ceremonial  Law,  245.  Continuance  of  the  Jewish  Church 
all  its  appointed  time,  248.  Respect  which  that  Dispensation 
had  to  the  Gtspel,  249.  Hope  of  the  Messiah — A  General  Mis- 
take on  this  Point,  250.  Expectation  of  Elias,  252.  Introduc- 
tion of  the  Gowpel — Its  Conflict  with  Ancient  Prejudices,  254. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    TABERNACLE. 

Origin  of  the  Tabwn.icle,  256.  The  Court  of  the  Tabernacle,  258. 
The  Frame  and  Coverings  of  the  Sacred  Tent,  259.  The  Altar 
of  Burnt-offering,  262.  The  Brazen  Laver,  265.  The  Golden 
Candlestick,  266.  The  Table  of  Shew-bread,  208.  The  Altar 
of  Incense,  269.  Ihe  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  272.  The  rheru- 
bim,  273.  The  Shcchiniih,  L'~.r).  Meaning  of  tit  whole  Picture, 
276.  The  Tabernaele  in  the  Wilderness,  279.  The  Tabernacle 
in  the  LJTH!  of  Cauuin,  280. 
2 


i4  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THK    TEMPLE. 

SKCT.  1.    The  Holt,  City #2 

Origin  :>f  Jerusalem — Situation,  282.  Mount  of  Olives.  2S3  Thf 
Garden  of  Gethsemane — Valley  of  Hinnom,  284.  Siloam,  '->•">. 
Calvary — First  Destruction  of  the  City,  286.  Ruin  by  the  Ro- 
mans— Present  State,  287. 

SECT.  2.   The  First  Temple 288 

Preparation  for  it  by  David,  288.  General  Plan,  290.  Dedication 
and  Ruin,  293. 

SECT.  3.   The  Second  Temple 294 

Its  Building,  and  Defects,  294.  Sul>se<|iient  Glory  of  it — \V:»rk 
of  Herod,  295.  The  Court  of  the  Gentiles,  296.  Porches,  2H7. 
Markets,  299.  The  Court  of  the  Women,  300.  The  Court  of 
l.-ruel,  302.  The  Court  ol  the  Prints,  303.  The  Sanctuary, 
304.  The  Tower  of  Antonia,  306.  Beauty  of  the  Second  TPUJ 
pie,  807.  Its  Final  Ruin,  308. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

MINISTERS    OF    THE    TABERNACLE    AND    TEMPLE. 

SECT.  1.   The  Levitet 309 

Their  Separation,  309.     Duties — Porters,  310.     Musicians,  311 
Nethinims,  313. 

SECT.  2.   The  Priestt 313 

Origin  of  the  Prieotly  Office — Separation  of  Aaron  and  his  Family, 
313.  Duties  of  the  Priests,  and  Qualifications,  314.  Division 
into  Courses,  315.  Meaning  >f  the  Priesthood,  316. 

SECT.  3.   The  High-Priest 318 

Virtue  of  his  Office — Sacred  Dress,  318.  Succession,  319.  Urim 
and  Thiiiiimim,  320.  Signification  of  the  High-Print's  Office, 
822 


CHAPTER  V. 

SACRIFICES    AND    OTHER   RELiniOUS    OFFERING*. 

1.   Different  Kindt  of  Sacrificial  Offerings  in  use  amonrf  the 

Jewt .' .' B24 

Sacrifices  in  use  from  the  Fall,  323.     BLOODY  OFFERINGS,  324. 
Four  Kinds  of  them,  viz :   Burnt  Offerings,  225.     Sin  Offering."., 


CON1ENT8.  1ft 

326.  Trespass  Offerings,  327.  Peace  Offerings,  328.  Cove- 
nant Sacrifices,  330.  Private  and  Public  Sacrifices,  881. 
SACRIKICKS  THAT  WERE  NOT  BLOODY,  332.  First-fruits,  335. 
The  First-born,  836.  Tithes,  337.  Vow-gifts,  339.  Half 
shekel  Tax,  341.  Lesson  derived  from  this  Subject,  342 

Sjh,r.  2.    Sacrificial  Rites '.   843 

1  «ying  of  Hands  on  the  Head  of  the  Victim,  343.  Slaying  of  it 
— Sacredness  of  Blood,  344.  Preparation  for  the  Altar,  345. 
Waving  and  Heaving,  34(5.  Fat,  340.  Salt,  U47.  The  Sucriti- 
«ial  Pile— Disposal  of  the  Flesh,  348. 

SEO..  3.  Meaning  and  Oriyin  of  Sacrifices 849 

R«i  ison  cannot  account  for  the  Use  of  Bloody  Sacrifices,  34'J. 
Vheir  Meaning  according  to  the  Bible,  350.  Their  Origin,  354 
1  he  idea  of  Atonement  connected  with  the  Use  of  them,  before 
>»  well  as  after  the  time  of  Moses,  355.  Sacrifices  of  Cain  and 
A\  el,  356.  Acceptance  of  Sacrifices  by  Fire — Figurative  Sa- 
cri  'ces,  358. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SACRED    TIMES    AND    SOLEMNITIES. 

SECT.  1     The  Daily  Service 359 

Morntug  and  Evening  Services,  359.  Manner  of  the  Morning 
Service,  360.  The  Evening  Service,  364.  Reverence  for  the 
Sanctuary,  364. 

SKCT.  2.    Me  Sabbath 366 

Its  Origvd,  366.  Character  in  the  Jewish  economy,  367.  Man- 
ner of  its  Observance,  368. 

SBCT.  3.  N»*>  Moons  and  Feast  of  Trumpets 37C 

SECT.  4.    Th>  Three  Or  eat  Festivals 372 

The  Passo/er,  373.  How  celebrated  in  the  Time  of  our  Saviour, 
374.  P^sclial  Families,  375.  Search  for  Leaven,  375.  Slay- 
ing of  th«  Lambs,  376.  The  Supper,  377.  The  Hagigah,  379 
Introduction  of  the  Harvest,  380.  Meaning  of  the  Passover, 
381.  The  Feast  of  Weeks,  882.  The  Feast  of  Tabernacles. 
882.  Cev«monies  added  to  it  in  later  times,  383. 

flEL'T.  5.   The  (treat  Day  of  Atonement 386 

Nature  of  th  t,  So'emnity — Manner  of  its  Service,  386.  Meaning 
of  it,  388. 

KCT.  6.  Sacred  Years 390 

The  Sabbatic  Vear,  390.     Th«  Year  of  Jubilee,  391. 


|6  CONTENTS 

HECT.  7.  Sacred  Seatons  of  Human  fnttitution A92 

Annual   Fast  Days,  392.     The  Feast  of  Purim,  393.     The  Fe»st 
of  Dedication,  303. 


CHAPTER 

MEMBERS    OF   THE    JEWISH    CHURCH. 

Members  by  Birth,  3%.  Ceremonial  Disqualifications  for  Sacred 
Duties,  3M.  Removal  of  Uncleanness,  3!»7.  The  Water  of 
Separation,  397.  Its  typical  import,  398.  Proselytes,  3^9. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SYNAGOGUES. 

Origin  of  Synagogues,  400.  Plan  of  Synagogue-Houses,  402. 
Officers  of  the  Synagogue,  404.  The  Synagogue  Worship,  407. 
Lessi  ns  from  the  Law  and  the  Prophets,  407.  Synagogue  Dis- 
cipline, 411.  Pattern  of  the  Synagogue  followed  in  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  Christian  Church,  413. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

RELIGIOUS    SECTS. 

dECT.  1.   The  Phariffa 41? 

Belief  of  the  Pharisees,  416.     Tradition  of  the  Pharipe«s,  417. 

SECT.  2.   The  Sadducea 4^8 

Origin  of  the  Sect,  423.     Doctrines  of  the  Sadduceea,  425. 

SECT.  8.   TheEssena 427 

SECT.  4.   The  Samaritan* 432 

APPENDIX...  ..   iffll 


BIBLICAL  ANTIQUITIES 


PART  I. 


BIBLICAL  ANTIQUITIES. 


PART   I. 


CHAPTER  I. 
GEOGRAPHY   AND  CLIMATE. 


SECTION   I. 

NAMES   AND    DIVISIONS   OF   THE   LAND. 

1  •!£  aountry  in  which  the  Jews  anciently  lived  has  beeo 
iMhaguished  by  different  names.  It  is  called,  in  Scripture 
the  Land  of  Canaan,  because  it  was  first  settled  by  Canaan, 
the  youngest  son  of  Hani,  and  because  his  descendants,  the 
Canjuinites,  dwelt  in  it,  till  the  "  measure  of  their  iniquity  was 
full,"  and  God  destroyed  them,  to  make  room  for  his  own 
people.  It  is  styled  the  Land  of  Promise,  on  account  of  the 
promise  made  to  Abraham,  that  it  should  be  given  to  his  seed 
for  an  inheritance,  when  he  himself  sojourned  there  as  a  stran- 
ger in  a  strange  land.  From  the  names  of  the  nation  to  whom 
it  was  given,  it  is  called  the  Land  of  the  Hebrews;  the  Land 
of  Israel;  and  the  Land  ofJudah.  Because  it  was  chosen  by 
God  as  the  country  in  which  his  true  worship  should  be  pre- 
served, and  was  long  honoured  with  his  peculiar  presence  and 
care,  it  is  often  named,  the  Holy  Land ;  and  once,  by  Hosea, 
the  Lord's  Land.  It  is  also  called  Palestine:  this  name  is 
very  old,  (Ex.  xv.  14 ;)  it  is  the  same  as  Philistia,  meaning, 
properly,  the  Land  of  die  Philistines;  and  then  used  in  a 
larger  sense,  for  the  whole  country  of  Canaan,  because  the 
Philistine?  were  so  important,  a  people  among  the  nations  by 
whom  it  was  first  settled.  This  last  is  the  most  convenient 
name,  and  is  now  become  the  most  common,  in  speaking  of 
the  whole  country  which  the  .indent  Jews  inhabited.  It  will, 
therefore,  be  the  one  most  generally  used  for  that  purpose,  in 
the  present  work. 

For  miny  ye?rs,  the  whole  land,  from  the  mountains  of 
Lebanon  in  the  north,  to  the  borders  of  Edorn  in  the  south. 

10 


2U  BIBLICAL    ANTIQIMTIES. 

ind  from  the  great  Mediterranean  Sea  on  the  west,  to  the 
mountains  of  Gilead  eastward,  remained  united  under  one 
government.  Each  of  the  twelve  tribes  had  its  particular  por- 
tion a>si^ned  by  lot,  in  which  it  dwelt  separate  from  the  others; 
but  all  together  made  one  people  and  one  nation.  On  the  east 
side  of  Jordan,  Reuben,  Gad,  and  half  of  the  tribe  of  Mauasseb, 
had  their  inheritance:  all  the  others  were  settled  west  of  that 
river.  But  immediately  after  the  death  of  Solomon,  this  beau- 
tiful union  was  broken  asunder.  Two  kingdoms  occupied  the 
land  instead  of  one.  The  Kinydom  ofJndnli  lay  to  the  south, 
taking  in  the  tribes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin.  The  other  U  n 
tribes  revolted  from  the  house  of  David,  and  formed  all  the 
country  north  of  Benjamin,  together  with  that  which  lay  east 
of  Jordan,  into  a  new  government.  This  was  culled  the  Kimj- 
tfom  of  Israel;  frequently,  by  the  prophets,  Kjiltrtnin,  because 
that  was  the  principal  tribe,  and  the  one  in  which  the  capital 
city  of  the  kingdom  stood;  and  sometimes,  from  the  name  of 
its  capital,  the  whole  kingdom  was  called  tfamaria. 

In  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  the  land  of  Palestine  was  divided 
into  several  provinces,  under  the  Roman  government.  On  the 
west  side  of  Jordan,  the  northern  part,  as  far  down  as  the  lower 
end  of  the  lake  of  Gennesareth,  was  called  Galilee.  Part  of 
this  was  named  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,  because  it  bordered  on 
the  land  of  the  heathen;  and  also  Upper  Galilee,  because  it  lay 
farthest  north  and  abounded  in  mountains.  The  southern  part 
of  it  was  called  Lower  Galilee.  It  took  in  all  the  country  di- 
rectly west  of  the  Gennesareth  lake,  and  was,  in  general,  a  rich 
and  fruitful  plain.  This  particular  district  enjoyed,  more  than 
any  other,  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  while  he  was  on  earth. 
Hence  he  was  called  the  fiufi/'nn,  and  his  disciples  are  styled 
Men  of  Galilee.  (Acts  i.  11.) 

South  of  Galilee  lay  Samaria,  so  called  from  the  city  of 
that  name.  It  embraced  the  lower  part  of  what  had  once  been 
the  kingdom  of  Israel,  or  the  ten  tribes.  The  origin  of  the 
came  and  of  the  city  to  which  it  was  first  given,  is  related 
1  Kings  xvi.  24.  The  Samaritans  were  a  mixed  race,  settled  in 
the  country  after  the  captivity  of  the  ten  tribes.* 

South  of  Samaria  was  the  country  of  Jn<l«i.  Sometimes 
this  name  seems  to  have  been  used  for  the  whole  land  of 
Palestine,  in  the  time  of  Christ ;  but  more  commonly  and 
properly,  only  for  that  part  which,  before  the  captivity,  had 
been  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  including  all  the  country  south  of 

*  See  the  history  of  their  rise,  in  the  17th  chapter  of  the  Second 
Book  of  Kings. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  fcl 

Samana.  From  this  account  of  the  situation  of  each  province, 
it  appears,  that  any  person  going  directly  from  Galilee  to  Judea 
"  must  needs  go  through  Samaria,"  (John  iv.  4,)  because  it  lay 
just  between  the  two.  That  part  of  Judea  which  lay  farthest 
south  was  inhabited  principally  by  descendants  of  the  ancient 
Edomites.  They  had  settled  themselves  there  while  the  Jews 
were  in  captivity  at  Babylon,  having  been  driven  from  their 
own  country,  which  lay  just  below,  by  the  violence  of  war,  and 
finding  none  to  hinder  them  from  taking  possession  of  the  land. 
When  the  Jews  returned,  they  were,  for  a  long  time,  too  weak 
to  recover  their  territory  out  of  their  hands :  the  Edomites,  or 
Idumeans,  as  they  were  then  called,  still  continued  to  dwell  in 
the  southern  border.  At  length,  however,  a  little  more  than  a 
hundred  years  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  John  Hyrcanus, 
the  great  Jewish  prince,  conquered  them  completely,  and  com- 
pelled them  either  to  leave  the  country  or  to  embrace  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Jews.  They  chose  to  change  their  religion  rather 
than  their  place,  and,  accordingly,  from  that  time,  became  a 
part  of  the  Jewish  nation.  Still,  that  part  of  the  country  in 
which  they  lived  continued  to  be  called  Idumea,  and  the  peo- 
ple Idumeans,  long  after.  (Mark  iii.  8.) 

The  country  beyond  Jordan  was  broken  up  into  seven  or 
eight  different  provinces.  As,  however,  these  divisions  seem 
to  have  b/en  not  very  clearly  defined,  and  more  than  once 
altered,  it  is  not  easy  to  describe  exactly  their  situation :  nor  is 
it  necessary,  since  only  a  part  of  them  are  so  much  as  named 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  these  scarcely  more  than  mentioned. 
It  is  enough  to  know  that  Decapolis  was  a  tract  of  country 
lying  east  of  the  lake  of  Gennesareth,  and  stretching  somewhai 
above  it,  also,  towards  the  north  :  that  Iturea  and  Trachanitu,  of 
which  Philip  was  tetrarch,  (Luke  iii.  1,)  took  in  the  country 
still  farther  north,  though  the  lower  part  of  Iturea  was  probably 
the  same  as  the  upper  part  of  what  was  called  the  region  of 
Decapolis;  and  that  Abilene,  mentioned  in  the  same  passage, 
was  the  most  northern  district  of  all,  lying  in  a  valley  formed 
by  the  mountains  of  Lebanon,  not  far  westward  from  Damascus, 


SECTION  II. 
FACE    OF   THE   COUNTRY. 


P/vLKSTlNE  is  a  mountainous  country.  Two  great  ranges 
seem  to  run  through  the  whole  length  of  the  land ;  one  on  the 
east  and  the  other  on  the  west  side  of  Jordan ;  not  in  ono 
r,  unbroken  chain  but  frequently  interrupted  by  valleys, 


22  U1I1LICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ana  shooting  off  in  irregular  heights,  sometimes  to  one  side  ano 
sometime^  t«.  the  other,  so  as  occasionally  to  leave  a  considerable 
plain  through  the  middle  of  the  country.  Hence,  the  same 
range  is  called  by  different  names,  in  different  regions.  Th<» 
Mountains  of  Qufad  formed  the  eastern  range.  The  southern 
part  of  these  mountains  was  called  Aba  rim.  From  the  high 
summit  of  one  of  these,  called  Ntbo,  Moses  surveyed  the  whole 
land  of  Canaan,  before  he  died.  The  northern  part  of  the 
same  range  was  named  BasJian  ;  it  was  much  celebrated  for  its 
stately  oaks  and  excellent  pastures,  where  numerous  herds  of 
the  finest  cattle  were  fed.  Hence,  there  is  often  allusion  made 
in  the  Bible  to  the  oaks  of  Jinsfuni,  and  the  strong  Imlls  of 
Bashan,  (Psalm  xxii.  12,  Isa.  ii.  13,  &c.;  This  range  joins 
the  Mountains  of  Lebanon,  on  the  north,  in  that  part  which 
was  anciently  called  Herman.  Lebanon  abounded  in  lofty 
cedars,  in  choice  fir  trees  and  refreshing  springs  of  water.  Its 
highest  summits  are  covered  with  continual  snow. 

Stretching  down  toward  the  south,  the  western  range  spreads 
itself,  in  numerous  ridges,  all  over  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles.  In 
lower  Galilee,  its  principal  appearance  was  confined  to  the  western 
border,  near  the  Great  Sea,  leaving  a  great  part  of  the  country 
level,  with  only  here  and  there  a  separate  height  rising  on  the 
prospect,  such  as  Mount  Tabor,  where  our  Saviour  is  supposed 
to  have  been  transfigured,  or  the  Mount  of  Gillxta,  where  Saul 
was  defeated  and  slain.  Several  of  these  heights  were  fre- 
quented by  our  Saviour.  He  was  accustomed  to  "  go  out  into  a 
mountain  to  pray,"  and  sometimes  continued  there  "all  night, 
in  prayer  to  God,"  (Luke  vi.  12 ;)  and  on  one  of  them,  he 
preached  the  remarkable  sermon  recorded  by  Matthew  in  his 
gospel.  (Chaps,  v.  vi.  vii.)  The  most  considerable  mountain 
in  this  region  is  Carmcl,  situated  on  the  shore  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea.  It  was  exceedingly  fruitful,  as  is  intimated  by  its 
name,  which  means,  a  vineyard  of  God.  On  the  top  of  this 
mountain,  Klijah  the  prophet  prayed  for  rain,  in  the  days  <  f 
Ahab,  while  his  sen-ant  went  seven  times  to  look  for  the  cloud, 
till  at  last  it  rose  like  a  man's  hand  over  the  western  sea 
(1  Kings  xviii.  4'2 — 44.)  Farther  down,  toward  the  .south,  the 
same  general  range  was  called  the  Mountains  of  Israel,  and  the 
Mountains  of  Ephraim.  Among  these  were  Mount  Ebal  and 
Mount  Gerizim,  separated  from  each  other  by  a  small  valley,  in 
which  stood  the  ancient  city  of  Shcchem,  called,  in  the  New 
Testament,  Syrhar.  The  Mnniit«ifn>i  of  J/»/n/t  were  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  range,  as  it  passes  southward,  through  the  terri- 
tory of  that  tribe,  to  the  ancient  heritage  of  Edom.  These 
mountainous  tracts  abound  with  caverns,  which  are  sometimes 


BIliLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  2S 

found  of  great  size.  In  times  of  danger  from  enemies,  it  was 
anciently  common  to  seek  refuge  and  shelter  in  such  natural 
hiding-places.  To  "  enter  into  the  holes  of  the  rocks  and  into 
the  caves  of  the  earth,"  was,  therefore,  an  expression  that  repre- 
sented a  season  of  distress  and  dismay.  (Isa.  ii.  19.)  The 
great  caves  of  Judah  afforded  no  small  protection  to  David,  iu 
the  time  of  his  cruel  persecution  by  Saul.  Robbers,  also,  werr 
accustomed  to  conceal  themselves  in  the  same  sort  of  retreats; 
and  to  this  day,  the  large  caverns  of  Palestine  are  not  uufre- 
quently  made,  in  this  way,  as  they  were  in  the  days  of  our 
Saviour,  dens  of  tiiieves. 

As  so  great  a  proportion  of  the  land  is  covered  with  moun- 
tains and  hills,  a  tract  of  level  country  of  any  extent  was  re- 
garded with  more  notice  than  in  countries  like  our  own  :  hence, 
every  such  plain  had  its  (\stinguishing  name.  The  most  noted 
a.nong  them  was  the  Plain  of  Jezreel,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes 
tilled,  the  Great  Plain.  It  reached  entirely  across  the  coun- 
try, from  Mount  Carmel  and  the  sea  to  the  bottom  of  lake 
Gennesareth,  about  ten  miles.  It  has  been  the  scene  of  several 
great  battles :  there  Barak  discomfited  the  mighty  army  of 
Sisera,  so  that  "  there  was  not  a  man  left,"  (Judges  iv.  16 ;)  and 
there,  also,  king  Josiah  fell,  when  he  went  out  and  fought  in 
disguise  with  Necho,  king  of  Egypt.  (2  Kings  xxiii.  29.) 
Another  plain  lay  along  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  from  Mount 
Carmel  to  the  southern  border  of  Judah.  The  upper  part  of 
this  was  called  Sharon,  a  name  that  belonged  also  to  two  other 
places.  There  was  also  the  "region  round  about  Jordan." 
(Matt.  iii.  5.)  This  was  a  tract  of  level  country,  on  the  sides 
of  that  river,  from  the  lake  of  Gennesareth  to  the  Dead  Sea, 
about  twelve  miles  broad. 

Wildernesses  and  Deserts  are  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
Scriptures ;  but  we  must  not  suppose  that  these  always  mean 
desolate  regions  without  inhabitants.  The  Jews  gave  the  name 
of  desert,  or  wilderness,  to  any  tract  of  country  that  was  not 
cultivated.  There  were  accordingly  two  kinds  of  deserts. 
First,  such  as  we  are  accustomed  to  understand  by  that  name 
in  our  own  age ;  plains  of  barren  sand,  where  scarce  a  fountain 
of  water  can  be  found,  and  only  the  most  scanty  herbage  can 
grow.  Such  as  these  are  not  found  in  Palestine  itself;  but,  in 
thu  neighbouring  country  of  Arabia,  have  always  been  well 
known.  The  other  kind  of  deserts  were  mountainous  tracts  of 
country,  thinly  inhabited,  and  chiefly  used  for  the  pasturing  of 
cattle;  less  fruitful  than  other  parts  of  the  laud,  but  not  with- 
out Considerable  growth  of  different  wild  productions,  with 
supply  of  water.  Such  were  the  wiMrrneue*  of 


24  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

JudaL,  mentioned  in  the  history  of  David,  and  the  "  Wilder 
ness  of  Judea,"  in  which  John  began  to  preach,  (Matt.  iii.  1,) 
as  well  as  the  desert*  in  which  he  lived  "  till  the  day  of  his 
showing  unto  Israel."  (Luke  i.  80.)  One  of  the  moat  dreary 
and  barren  of  these  deserts  lay  between  the  Mount  of  Olives 
and  the  Plains  of  Jericho,  and  became  a  favourite  lurking 
place  for  thieves  or  robbers,  where  they  fell  upon  travellers  on 
the  road  between  Jerusalem  and  Jericho.  (Luke  x.  30.)  So 
many  robberies  were  committed  there,  that  it  was  called  the 
Bloody  Way.  Into  some  part  of  this  wild  region,  probably, 
our  Saviour  was  led  by  the  Spirit,  "  to  be  tempted  of  the 
devil,"  after  his  baptism.  (Matt.  iv.  1.) 

There  is  only  one  river  in  Palestine  that  deserves  the  name ; 
this  is  the  Jordan.  The  other  streams  that  are  sometimes 
called  rivers,  become  important  onl)  when  they  are  swelled 
with  floods  of  rain  or  melting  snow  and  ice  from  the  mountains. 
Then  they  dash  and  roll  along  with  a  great  deal  of  noise  and 
force ;  but  when  the  drought  of  summer  comes,  they  sink  down 
into  mere  brooks,  and  often  are  dried  up  altogether.  Hence, 
Job,  because  his  friends  had  disappointed  his  expectation,  and 
brought  him  only  reproach  instead  of  comfort,  compares  them 
to  such  streams :  "  My  brethren  have  dealt  deceitfully  as  a 
brook,  and  as  the  stream  of  brooks  they  pass  away;  which 
are  blackish  by  reason  of  the  ice,  and  wherein  the  snow  is  hid ; 
what  time  they  wax  warm,  they  vanish :  when  it  is  hot,  they 
are  consumed  out  of  their  place.  The  paths  of  their  way  are 
turned  aside :  they  go  to  nothing  and  perish."  (Job  vi. 
15—18.) 

The  Jordan  runs  from  Mount  Lebanon  to  the  Dead  Sea, 
passing  through  the  lake  of  Gennesareth  in  its  way.  In  the 
spring,  when  the  snows  of  Lebanon  melt,  it  rises  above  it« 
common  banks :  from  this  circumstance,  it  has  two  channels ; 
one  far  wider  than  the  other,  with  banks  of  its  own,  to  hold  the 
water  in  the  time  of  this  flood.  It  was  in  the  spring,  the  har- 
vest-time of  Palestine,  during  this  swelling  of  the  river,  that 
the  Israelites,  in  the  time  of  Joshua,  passed  over,  at  the  com- 
mand of  God,  into  the  land  of  Canaan ;  when  "  the  waters 
above  stood  a^d  rose  up  upon  an  heap  very  far,"  till  the  whole 
nation  had  gone  over  the  dry  channel.  (Josh.  iii.  15,  16.) 
The  space  between  the  outer  and  inner  bank,  on  each  side, 
which  (except  in  the  spring)  remains  dry,  is  grown  over  with 
thick  bushes  and  reeds,  where  wild  beasts  find  a  safe  hiding 
place,  until  the  yearly  rise  of  the  river  compels  them  to  fly 
whence  the  expression,  to  "  come  up  as  a  lion  from  the  swell- 
ings of  Jordan."  (Jer.  xlix.  19.) 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  25 

J'he  lake  of  Gennesareth,  through  which  the  Jordan  flows, 
. euhed,  also,  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  because  it  lay  just  east  of  that 
rountry,  and  the  Sea  of  Tiberias,  from  a  city  of  that  Dame 
which  stood  on  its  shore,)  is  filled  with  clear,  pure  water,  ex- 
:ellent  to  drink,  and  abounds  with  different  kinds  of  fish.  Ob 
account  of  these  advantages,  it  was  a  common  saying  among 
the  Jews,  that  "  God  loved  that  sea  more  than  all  other  seas  ic 
the  world."  It  has  its  bed  in  a  valley  surrounded  by  lofty  and 
steep  hills.  Here,  the  disciples  of  our  Lord  pursued  their  busi- 
ness of  fishing :  over  its  beautiful  bosom  the  Redeemer  himself 
often  sailed :  when  its  waves  were  tost  with  the  tempest  they 
ueard  his  voice  and  were  still :  and  when  he  willed  to  walk 
upon  its  waters,  they  bore  him  up  like  solid  ground. 

The  Dead  Sea,  called,  also,  the  Sea  of  t/ie  Plain  and  the 
Salt  Sea,  into  which  the  Jordan  empties  all  its  waters,  is  spread 
over  the  ruins  of  four  ancient  cities,  destroyed  for  their  wicked-- 
ness, by  a  miracle  from  God.  (Gen.  xix.  24,  25.)  It  too,  like 
the  lake  just  mentioned,  is  surrounded  with  high  hills,  except 
on  the  corner  toward  Jerusalem,  where  it  is  bounded  by  a 
barren,  scorched  plain.  Its  waters  are  bitter  and  nauseous,  and 
more  salt  than  those  of  the  ocean  ;  and  the  land  around  it  is  so 
filled  with  salt  that  it  will  not  produce  plants.  The  whole  ap- 
jx-arauce  of  the  place  is  dismal,  as  if  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty 
were  abiding  upon  it  still. 

The  land  of  Palestine  is  highly  praised,  in  the  Scriptures, 
for  its  natural  advantages.  It  is  described  as  a  "good  land 
and  a  large,  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey."  (Ex.  iii.  8  ) 
"  A  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of  fountains  and  depths,  that  spring 
out  of  the  valleys  and  hills ;  a  land  of  wheat,  and  barley,  and 
vines,  and  fig  trees,  and  pomegranates;  a  land  of  oil  olive  and 
honey ;"  a  land  wherein  the  people  should  eat  bread  without 
scarceness,  and  lack  nothing ;  whose  stones  were  iron,  and  out 
of  whose  hills  they  might  dig  brass.  (Deut.  viii.  7 — 9.)  No 
country  in  the  east  could  boast  such  a  variety  of  blessings. 
Egypt  alone  could  compare  with  it  in  fruitfulness  of  soil ;  but, 
then,  Egypt  was  never  cheered  with  showers  of  rain :  it  was 
watered  only  by  the  yearly  overflowing  of  the  river  Nile. 
Egypt,  too,  was  not  adorned  with  mountains  and  hills;  and,  of 
course,  could  not  abound  m  the  same  variety  of  productions. 
Nothing  like  the  glory  of  Lebanon,  or  the  excellency  of  Carmel, 
the  cold  flowing  waters  of  the  rock,  or  ike  springs  of  the  valleys, 
was  found  in  all  its  extent.  Hence,  Moses  tells  the  Israelites, 
rtiat  Kgypt,  with  all  its  advantages,  was  by  no  means  equal  to 
'.he  land  which  they  were  going  to  inherit.  "  The  land  wnithcr 
thou  goest  in  to  possess  it,  is  not  aa  the  land  of  Esypt  from 

3 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 


which  ye  came  out,  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed,  and  wateredsi 
it  with  thy  foot,  as  a  garden  of  herbs;  but  the  land  whither  y« 
go  to  possess  it,  is  a  land  of  hills  and  mlli-ys,  nnd 
tit'  the  rain  of  heaven."  (Deut.  xi.  10,  11.) 


SECTION   HI. 

CLIMATE. 

THE  weather  in  Palestine,  as  in  our  own  country,  varies  in 
different  places  and  at  different  times.  The  year  seems  to  have 
been  divided,  at  a  very  early  period,  into  six  SEASONS,  each 
consisting  of  two  months.  We  lind  them  all  mentioned  in 
God's  promise  to  Noah,  after  the  flood :  "  While  the  earth 
remaineth,  seedtime  and  harvest  and  cold  and  heat  and  sum- 
mer and  winter  shall  not  cease."  (Gen.  viii.  22.)  These  same 
divisions  are  found  among  the  Arabs  to  this  day. 

HARVEST  began  some  time  in  the  firnt  part  of  our  April,  and 
BO  ended  in  the  first  part  of  June.  During  this  season,  the 
weather  is  generally  very  pleasant :  towards  the  close  of  it, 
however,  it  begins  to  grow  uncomfortable  through  heat.  SUM- 
MER, or  the  time  of  fruits,  followed  the  season  of  harvest,  and 
lasted  the  next  two  months.  Durirfg  this  time,  the  heat  in 
that  country  becomes  more  and  more  severe ;  so  that  the  in- 
habitants choose  to  sleep  under  the  open  sky,  on  the  roofs  of 
their  houses.  The  HOT  SEASON  came  next,  beginning  in  the 
middle  of  August:  the  early  part  of  this  period  is  excessively 
warm ;  but  toward  the  end  of  it,  the  weather  gradually  grows 
less  oppressive. 

From  the  middle  of  April  to  the  middle  of  September,  it 
neither  rains  nor  thunders :  hence,  in  the  time  of  Samuel  it  waa 
considered  a  miracle,  when,  in  answer  to  his  prayer,  it  thundered 
and  rained  in  the  time  of  harvest.  (1  Sam.  xii.  17.)  And 
hence,  the  ancient  proverb,  "  As  snow  in  summer,  and  as  rain 
in  harvest,  so  honour  is  not  seemly  for  a  fool."  (Prov.  xxvi.  1.) 
Sometimes,  in  the  beginning  of  harvest,  a  cloud  is  seen  in  the 
morning,  but  as  the  sun  rises,  it  vanishes  away.  (IIos.  vi.  4.) 
Afterward,  during  May,  June,  July  and  August,  not  a  solitary 
cloud  appears,  and  the  earth  receives  no  moisture  but  from  the 
dews  of  the  night.  These  dews  fall  far  more  plentifully  tLere, 
than  any  in  our  part  of  the  world;  so  that  those  who  are  ex- 
posed to  them  become  wet  to  the  skin.  In  Solomon's  Song, 
the  Bridegroom  says,  "my  head  is  filled  with  dew,  and  my  locks 
with  the  drops  of  the  night."  Because  they  are  so  heavy  and 
no  important,  they  are  often  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures  among 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  27 

t\,  neb  blessings  of  the  country,  and  the  dew  is  everywhere 
us*..  *  as  a  symbol  of  the  divine  goodness.  In  the  morning, 
he  rtrrer,  it  is  speedily  dried  up,  according  to  the  beautiful 
all  :o^.u  of  Hosea,  fvi.  4  :)  "0  Ephraim,  what  shall  I  do  unto 
thcv'  0  Judah,  wnat  shall  I  do  unto  thee?  for  your  goodness 
is  ac  .<•-  morning  cloud,  and  as  the  early  dew  it  goeth  away." 
The  sponger  plants,  by  nourishment  received  each  night  from 
these  gentle  showers,  are  enabled  to  withstand  the  heat  of  the 
day;  but  all  the  smaller  herbs,  unless  they  grow  by  some 
rivulet  of  water,  wither  and  die.  The  country  is  covered  with 
dreariness;  the  fountains  and  brooks  are  in  a  great  measure 
dried ;  and  the  ground  becomes  so  hard,  that  it  often  splits 
open  with  large  clefts.  The  heat  is  rendered  still  more  dis- 
tressing, if  the  east  wind  happens  to  blow  for  a  few  days;  this 
is  dry  and  withering,  and  proves  very  injurious  to  the  vines  and 
the  crops  of  the  field.  Hence,  it  is  used  as  an  emblem  of  great 
calamity :  "  Though  he  be  fruitful  among  his  brethren,  an  east 
wind  shall  come,  the  wind  of  the  Lord  shall  come  up  from  the 
wilderness,  and  his  spring  shall  become  dry,  and  his  fountain 
shall  be  dried  up."  (Hos.  xiii.  15.) 

After  the  hot  season,  came  SEEDTIME;  it  lasted  from  the 
first  part  of  October  to  the  first  part  of  December  During  this 
season,  the  weather  is  various — often  misty,  cloudy  and  rainy. 
The  air,  at  the  commencement  of  this  period,  is  still  very  warm ; 
as  it  advances,  it  becomes  continually  cooler,  till  toward  the  end 
of  it,  the  snow  begins  to  fall  upon  the  mountains.  WINTER 
was  made  up  of  the  two  following  months.  In  this  season, 
snow  frequently  falls,  but  seldom  lies  a  whole  day,  except  on 
the  mountains;  thin  ice  also  is  formed,  which  melts  as  soon  as 
the  sun  rises  to  any  height ;  the  north  winds  are  chill ;  thunder, 
lightning  and  hail,  are  frequent,  with  heavy  showers  of  rain; 
the  roads  become  difficult  to  travel,  especially  among  the  moun- 
tains :  whence  our  Lord  told  his  disciples  to  pray  that  their 
fliyht  miijhl  not  be  in  the  winter.  (5latt.  xxiv.  20.)  The 
brooks  are  filled,  and  streams  that  were  scarcely  noticed  before, 
swell  into  the  likeuoss  of  rivers,  rushing  in  every  direction 
through  the  land.  The  remainder  of  the  year,  from  the  first 
half  of  February  to  the  first  half  of  April,  was  called  the  COLD 
SEASON,  because,  in  the  beginning  of  it,  the  weather  is  still 
cold,  though  it  soon  gr.ws  warm,  and,  in  some  places,  quite 
hot.  During  this  time,  tho  rains  still  continue,  with  frequent 
thunder,  lightning  and  hail.  From  the  commencement  of  it, 
the  earth  begins  to  put  forth  the  appearance  of  spring;  tbr 
trc'-s  are  soon  covered  with  leaves,  and  the  fields  with  fluurisl 
iupr  grain,  or  flowers  of  every  different  hue. 


i!8  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

Fum  seedtime  to  harvest,  Palestine  is  watered  with  n> 
merous  showers  of  rain.  According  to  the  accounts  of  travellern, 
a  rain  of  two  or  three  days  fulls  in  the  early  part  of  October. 
By  this,  the  ground  is  prepared  for  ploughing  and  sowing: 
being  before  so  hard,  that  it  could  not  receive  cultivation,  and 
so  dry,  that  seed  cast  upon  it  could  not  possibly  grow.  A  sea- 
son of  clear  weather,  of  about  twenty  days,  follows,  which  tho 
fanner  improves,  if  he  is  wise,  as  his  most  favourable  seedtime 
When  this  is  over,  the  rains  return  with  plentiful  fall.  These 
first  heavy  showers,  with  which  tin-  rainy  season  commenced 
after  the  long  drought  of  summer,  were  called  the  former  or 
early  rains.  In  like  manner,  the  rain  that  fell  just  before 
harvest,  in  the  spring,  was  called  ///*•  l«t!<-r  /•«////,  because  with  it 
the  rainy  season  ended  :  it  comes  about  the  beginning  of  April, 
and  was  considered  necessary,  to  bring  the  crops  forward  to 
their  full  perfection.  The,  eurli/  nix  I  the  loiter  rain  are  men- 
tioned, in  Scripture,  as  the  rich  blessing  of  God;  since,  when 
these  were  rendered  sure,  the  period  between  them  being  always 
abundant  with  showers,  the  crop  of  the  husbandman  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  good.  The  quantity  of  rain  that  falls  between 
seedtime  and  harvest  is  very  great.  Sometimes  it  descends  in 
torrents,  rushing  down  the  hills,  and  sweeping  away  even  houses 
and  cattle  that  n.ay  fall  in  the  way.  To  these  violent  rains  our 
Saviour  refers,  beautifully  and  impressively,  at  the  close  of  his 
sermon  on  the  mount:  "  The  rains  descended,  and  the  floods 
came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house,  &c." 
(Matt.  vii.  25,  27.) 

Through  the  winter,  the  weather  is  extremely  various,  as  it 
id  felt  at  different  times  and  in  different  places.  On  the  higher 
mountains,  it  is  exceedingly  cold,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  is 
found  not  unfrequently,  in  the  plains,  quite  warm.  Some  of 
the  peopie  pass  the  whole  year  without  fire,  though  it  is  con- 
sidered agreeable,  and  for  more  delicate  persons,  necessary,  from 
December  to  March.  The  nights  are  often  severely  cold,  even 
after  the  wannest  days.  "  In  the  day,  says  Jacob,  the  drought 
consumed  me,  and  the  frost  by  night."  (Gen.  xxxi.  40.)  The 
snow  falls  in  large  flakes,  equal  in  size  to  a  walnut,  and  has 
more  resemblance  to  locks  of  wool  than  it  has  in  our  country. 
"He  giveth  snow  like  wool."  (Ps.  cxlvii.  16.) 

When  the  sky  was  red  iu  the  evening,  it  was  considered  a 
sign  of  fair  weather  on  the  next  day,  but  if  it  happened  to  be 
««o  in  the  morning,  it  led  them  to  expect  rain,  as  appears  from 
the  words  of  our  Saviour,  (Matt.  xvi.  '2,  :>  :  >  "When  it  is 
evening,  ye  say,  It  will  be  fair  weather,  for  the  sky  is  red ;  and 
in  the  morning,  It  will  be  foul  weather  to-day,  for  the  sky  is 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  29 

«ed  and  lowering."  A  cloud  rising  from  the  west  also  gave 
warning  of  rain :  "  he  said  to  the  people,  When  ye  see  a  cloud 
rise  out  of  the  west,  straightway  ye  say,  There  cometh  a  shower; 
and  so  it  is."  (Luke  xii.  54.) 

WINDS.  The  east  wind  was  the  most  injurious.  In  the 
Bummer,  as  has  been  said,  it  was  dry  and  hot ;  withering,  as  it 
passed  along,  the  herbage  of  the  field.  (Ps.  ciii.  15,  16.)  In 
the  winter,  it  was  cold  and  still  without  moisture,  and  left  a 
sickly  blight  upon  the  grain  wherever  its  influence  fell.  It  waf 
also  particularly  dangerous  at  sea :  "  Thou  breakest  the  ships 
of  Tarshish  with  an  east  wind."  (Ps.  xlviii.  7.)  Every  wind 
coming  from  any  direction  between  east  and  north,  or  east  and 
south,  was  called  an  east  wind.  Such  was  that  tempestuous 
wind,  called  Euroclydon,  that  caused  the  wreck  of  the  vessel  in 
which  Paul  was  sailing  to  Rome.  (Acts  xxvii.  14.)  They  are 
still  common  in  that  sea,  and  dreaded  by  the  sailors.  The  west 
wind,  coming  from  the  sea,  generally  brought  rain.  That  which 
came  from  the  north  is  described  by  Solomon  as  driving  away 
rain.  (Prov.  xxv.  23.)  And  Job  tells  us  that  cold  and  fair 
weather  are  from  the  north,  (xxxvii.  9,  22  :)  while  the  whirl- 
wind more  frequently  rose  from  the  south ;  and  the  winds  from 
that  quarter  ordinarily  brought  heat;  though  sometimes  the 
southern  breezes  appear  to  have  been  considered  agreeable. 

THE  SIMOOM.  There  is  a  wind  that  blows  at  times  in  some 
countries  of  the  East,  of  the  most  terrible  character.  It  comes 
in  a  stream  from  over  the  burning  sands  of  the  desert,  bearing 
poison  and  death  with  its  course.  Its  approach  is  signified  by 
the  appearance  of  distant  clouds  slightly  tinged  with  red  j  the 
sky  loses  its  serenity,  and  becomes  gloomy  and  alarming.  As 
the  current  draws  nearer,  it  presents  to  the  eye  a  hazy  aspect, 
resembling  a  sheet  of  smoke,  coloured  with  purple,  such  as  is 
seen  in  the  rainbow.  Happily,  its  path  is  never  broad,  gene- 
rally measuring  less  than  a  hundred  feet,  and  its  rapid  flight  soon 
carries  it  over  the  country,  not  allowing  it  to  be  felt  at  any  one 
point  more  than  eight  or  ten  minutes.  At  the  same  time,  it 
always  keeps  about  two  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
Persons,  therefore,  who  see  it  coming,  may  save  their  lives,  by 
throwing  themselves  instantly  flat  upon  the  earth,  with  their 
faces  downward,  and  breathing  as  little  as  possible  till  it  is  past. 
This  is  the  way  commonly  practised  to  avoid  its  deadly  touch 
A  man  would  be  equally  secure  if  he  could  place  himself  about 
fifteen  feet  above  the  ground,  as  the  current  of  the  wind  is 
generally  not  more  than  twelve  feet  high.  Camels  and  other 
animals  are  instinctively  taught,  when  they  perceive  its  ap- 
proach, to  thrust  their  beads  down  and  bury  their  nostrils  in 


30  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

the  earth  Men,  however,  are  often  destroyed  by  its  blast.  i( 
comes  with  such  amazing  rapidity,  that  it  overtakes  them  on 
their  feet  before  they  are  aware,  and  thus  they  receive  its  fatal, 
suffocating  vapour  into  their  lungs.  They  fall  down  directly, 
and  lie  without  motion  or  life.  If  one  of  their  limbs  is  shaken, 
to  arouse  them,  it  falls  off;  and  very  soon,  the  whole  body 
turns  black,  with  mortification  spread  throughout.  It  is  espe- 
cially dangerous  when  it  comes  in  the  night.  Thousands,  it  ia 
said,  have,  in  more  than  one  instance,  perished  in  a  single  night, 
from  its  desolating  breath.  This  wind  is  called,  by  the  Arabs, 
Simoom,  and,  by  the  Turks,  Samyel.  It  is  supposed,  by  some, 
that  the  prophet  intended  the  same,  when  he  compared  the 
coming  judgments  of  God  to  a  dry  wind  of  the  hiyh  places  in 
the  wilderness.  (Jer.  iv.  11.) 


CHAPTER  H. 
NATURAL   HISTORY. 

SECTION  I. 

OF   VEGETABLE    PRODUCTIONS. 

MOSES  describes  the  land  of  Palestine,  as  a  land  of  wheat, 
and  larley,  and  vines,  and  fig-trees,  and  pomegranates  ;  a  land 
of  oil  olive  and  honey  ;  and  the  Scriptures  abound  with  allusions 
to  different  kinds  of  trees  and  plants.  Solomon,  we  are  told, 
left  a  book  on  this  subject :  "  He  spake  of  trees,  from  the  cedar 
of  Lebanon,  even  unto  the  hyssop  that  springeth  out  of  the 
wall :  he  spake  also  of  beasts,  and  of  fowl,  and  of  creeping 
things,  and  of  fishes."  (1  Kings  iv.  33.)  If  we  had  this 
book,  we  should,  no  doubt,  know  all  about  the  different  pro- 
ductions of  the  country  in  his  time ;  but  as  it  has  been  long  since 
lost,  we  must  rest  satisfied  with  such  general  knowledge  as  can 
be  gathered  from  the  occasional  notices  found  in  the  Bible, 
compared  with  the  observations  of  travellers  who  have  visited 
the  east  in  modern  times. 

WILD   TREES. 

The  Cedar,  to  which  such  frequent  allusion  is  made  iu 
Scripture,  is  a  most  stately  tree.  Its  roots  spread  far  around 
below;  it  rises  to  a  lofty  height;  its  branches  reach  a  great 
Ustance  out  on  every  side,  forming  a  large  and  delightful  shade, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  31 


nd  remaining  covered  with  green  leaves  from  one  end  of  the 
year  to  the  other.  Its  trunk  often  becomes  exceedingly  large, 
sometimes  measuring  twelve  yards  around;  the  wood  is  of  a 
beautiful  brownish  colour,  with  a  pleasant  smell ;  being  some- 
what bitter,  it  is  not  touched  by  worms,  so  that  it  has  been 
known  to  last  in  a  building  two  thousand  years.  The  princi 
pal  growth  of  cedars  was  anciently  on  Mount  Lebanon :  most 
of  them,  however,  have  since  been  cut  down,  so  that  now  only 
a  few  can  be  found,  growing  amid  the  snows  in  the  highest  pan 
of  the  mountain.  Kings,  great  men,  and  proud  men,  are  com- 
pared to  cedars,  on  account  of  their  strength  or  their  loftiness ; 
so  also  the  righteous,  on  the  other  hand,  in  allusion  to  their 
usefulness  and  beauty.  (Ps.  xcii.  12.) 

Oalcs  abounded  anciently  in  different  parts  of  Palestine. 
Those  which  grew  on  Bashan  were  considered  peculiarly  fine. 
The  broad  and  refreshing  shade  which  they  supplied  was  par- 
ticularly grateful  in  that  warm  climate.  It  was  common,  in 
early  times,  to  choose  such  a  shade  as  the  most  pleasant  place 
for  setting  up  a  tent.  Under  the  shadow  of  the  oak,  also, 
idols  were  often  erected  by  the  corrupt,  where  they  resorted 
from  time  to  time,  to  engage  in  their  abominable  worship ;  and 
sometimes  whole  groves  of  this  venerable  tree  were  thus  turned 
into  rr treats  of  impiety  and  shame,  on  account  of  the  agreeablfl 
and  secret  shelter  which  they  afforded. 

Under  the  name  of  oak,  in  our  translation  of  the  Bible,  ii 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 


Oak  Tree. 

included,  (besides  the  common  tree  so  called,)  the  Terebinth  01 
Turpentine  tree  which  belongs  to  the  east.  This  is  a  lan_r« 
evergreen  tree,  with  wide-spreading  branches  and  numerous 
leaves.  If  allowed  to  stand,  it  is  said  that  it  will  live  a  thou- 
sand years ;  and  when  it  dies,  its  place  is  soon  supplied  by  a 
new  trunk,  rising  on  the  same  spot,  to  equal  size,  and  flourish- 
ing to  an  equal  age.  It  was  on  account  of  this  lasting  character, 
and  because  of  the  single  and  separate  manner  in  which  tlu-y 
often  grew,  that  these  trees  were  sometimes  used  to  designate 
particular  places;  and  an  aged  T<r,l,intli  was  spoken  of  with 
something  of  the  same  sort  of  distinction  as  that  with  which  we 
make  mention  of  a  castle  or  a  city  Thus  we  read  of  the  oak 
by  Shechem,  the  oak  in  Ophrah,  the  oak  in  Jabesh,  &c.,  as 
being  perfectly  well  known  to  everybody  that  had  ever  been  in 
those  places.  Several  such  trees  grew  in  the  region  of  Hebron, 
where  Abraham  dwelt  a  considerable  time.  M.-ann^  the  bro- 
ther of  Aner  and  Eschol,  was  a  personage  of  chief  importance 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  38 

IE  that  district,  to  whom  it  especially  belonged.  Hence,  it  was 
called,  according  to  the  usage  just  noticed,  the  OaJcs,  or  Tcre- 
bintiis  of  Mamre ;  for  this  seems  to  be  what  we  are  to  under- 
stand by  the  Plains  of  Mamre,  where  the  ancient  patriarch 
pitched  his  tent  Under  the  shade  of  one  of  these  long-living 
trees,  his  simple  dwelling  stood ;  and  it  is  said,  that  the  very 
same  tree  continued  standing  till  after  the  time  of  our  Saviour. 
There  might  have  been  one  growing  on  the  same  spot. 

The  Fir  tree  grows  to  a  great  height,  and  continues,  like  the 
cedar  and  the  terebinth,  green  all  the  year.  It  was  anciently 
used  for  building  and  for  making  furniture.  It  grew  especially 
on  Lebanon  and  Carmel.  Several  other  kind?  of  trees  grew 
wild  on  the  mountains ;  such  as  the  tall,  straight  Cypress,  used 
at  times  for  the  making  of  dumb  idols,  because  its  wood,refused 
to  rot,  and  the  stately  Pine,  well  known  in  everv  quarter  of  the 
world.  On  lower  grounds,  along  the  mountain  foot,  or  by  the 
sides  of  the  brook  or  river  stream,  or  over  the  bosom  of  the 
fruitful  plain,  grew  various  trees  and  shrubs  of  humbler  appear- 
ance. Among  these  were  the  Linden,  or  Teil  ires,  the  Alder, 
the  Poplar,  the  Willow,  the  Laurel  and  the  Myrtle.  This 
last  is  a  large  shrub,  sometimes  growing  to  the  size  of  a  small 
tree,  very  common  in  the  valleys  of  Palestine.  It  is  perpetually 
covered  with  leaves  of  the  most  beautiful  green,  and  in  its 
season,  produces  a  great  abundance  of  rose-like  flowers,  which 
delight  the  eye,  and  breathe  a  most  fragrant  perfume  on  all  the 
air  around. 

The  Shittim-wood,  so  frequently  mentioned  in  Scripture, 
does  not  appear  to  have  grown  in  the  land  of  Palestine.  There 
is  the  best  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  the  wood  of  the  black 
Acacia.  This  tree  flourishes  in  some  parts  of  Egypt,  and 
abundantly  through  the  deserts  of  Arabia.  It  is  of  the  size  of 
a  large  mulberry  tree,  with  rough  bark  and  spreading  branches 
well  supplied  with  thorns.  The  wood  is  hard,  tough,  and  capa- 
ble of  receiving  from  the  hands  of  the  carpenter  a  very  smooth 
and  beautiful  polish.  It  produces  flowers  of  an  excellent  fra- 
grance. Hence,  Isaiah  joins  the  Shittah  tree  with  the  myrtle, 
and  others  held  in  esteem  for  beauty  or  richness  of  smell. 
(Isa.  xli.  19.)  It  was  particularly  the  wood  of  this  tree  which 
was  used  in  the  wilderness  for  making  the  tabernacle  and  its 
furniture.  The  wilderness  of  Arabia,  in  which  the  whole  work 
was  completed,  furnishes  no  other  tree  at  all  suited  for  this  use ; 
while  the  acacia,  or  shittah,  is  so  admirably  fitted  for  it,  by 
reason  of  its  solid,  beautiful  un<l  lasting  character,  that  a  better 
could  scarcely  have  been  found,  if  it  could  have  been  possible 
to  make  choice  out  of  all  the  trees  in  the  world.  The  moun 


34  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

tains  of  Sinai  and  Horeb  might  still,  as  in  ancient  times,  afford 
an  abundant  supply  ol'the  stun-  timber  lor  such  a  building. 

It  is  far  more  difficult  to  determine  what  was  the  GopJier- 
wood,  of  which  the  ark  was  made.  Some  have  imagined  that 
cedar  is  to  be  understood  under  that  name;  others,  that  it  \vsu-. 
the  timber  of  pine ;  another  class  conceive  that  the  solid  and 
almost  imperishable  wood  of  the  cypress  is  so  called ;  while  a 
still  different  interpretation  supposes  that  the  word  Gopher  was 
but  intended  to  signify  any  particular  tree  at  all,  but  merely 
expresses  some  circumstance  in  the  manner  of  its  use  in  that 
building,  as  squared  timbers,  planed  wood,  or  pitched  wood,  as 
we  know  the  ark  was  daubed  with  pitch,  within  and  without. 
From  this  confusion  of  opinions,  it  appears  that  nothing  satis- 
factory can  be  known  on  this  subject. 

In  Arabia,  also,  as  well  as  in  India,  grew  the  Cinnamnn  tree, 
and  the  Cassia,  that  resembles  the  cinnamon  so  much;  each 
yields  a  valuable  spice,  bearing  its  name  to  the  most  distant 
countries.  There,  also,  the  precious  Frankincense  seems  to 
have  been  procured.  It  is  a  dry  gum,  of  a  yellowish  white 
colour,  and  a  strong,  fragrant  smell,  with  a  warm  and  biting 
bitter  taste,  formed  of  the  sap  that  flows  from  some  tree  which 
travellers  have  not  yet  been  able  to  discover  and  describe.  It 
takes  fire  easily,  and  burns  with  a  bright  and  strong  flame, 
sending  upwards  a  heavy  cloud  of  aromatic  smoke.  Every 
morning  and  evening,  it  was  thus  offered  on  the  golden  altar  of 
the  holy  place,  in  the  sanctuary,  representing  the  prayers  of 
saints,  which  rise  as  a  most  acceptable  offering  to  God,  when 
presented  through  the  Great  High  Priest,  Christ  Jesus.  (Ps. 
•2xli.  2,  Mai.  i.  11.)  It  seems,  however,  to  have  signified  espe- 
cially, the  merits  of  the  Redeemer  himself,  which  rise  like 
grateful  perfume  with  the  prayers  of  his  people,  and  dispose 
God  graciously  to  hear  and  answer,  and  without  which,  no 
prayer  of  sinful  man  could  ever  be  regarded  by  the  HOLY  ONE. 
(Lukei.  10,  Rev.  viii.  :>,  4.)  The  .)////•/•/*,  repeatedly  mentioned 
in  Scripture,  was  another  production  of  Arabia,  procured,  like 
the  frankincense,  from  the  trunk  of  some  tree  that  flourishes  in 
that  spicy  region.  This  precious  gum  has  an  extremely  bitter 
taste,  and  a  strong,  though  by  no  means  disagreeable,  smell. 
Among  the  ancients,  it  formed  one  article  in  the  composition 
of  the  most  costly  ointments  and  was  used  by  delicate  persons 
as  a  perfume,  either  by  scenting  their  clothes  with  it,  or  by 
-arr\ii;^  it  in  little  caskets  in  th'-ir  bo^ms.  Wine  mingled 
with  myrrh, — which  Matthew  calls  >/<il/,  a  word  that  means  any 
thing  exceedingly  bitter, — was  offered  to  our  Saviour  on  th« 
\roes,  to  drink,  because  of  its  power  to  take  away,  in  some  mea- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


35 


sure,  the  sense  of  pain.  Myrrh  was  much  used  for  embalming 
the  dead,  and  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the  articles  brought  by 
Nicodemus  for  this  purpose,  when  he  came  to  bury  >,hc  body  of 
Jesus 

CULTIVATED   TREES. 

Several  trees  were  cultivated  with  care,  on  a<x<  ant  of  their 
fruit,  and  often  became  a  source  of  no  small  pi  out  to  the  hus- 
bandman. Of  this  class,  was  the  Olive.  It  appears  to  have 
been  cultivated  very  early ;  for  we  read  of  oil  in  the  time  of 
Jacob.  (Gen.  xxviii.  18.)  This  tree  grows  better  in  Pales- 
tine than  in  any  other  country  of  the  east,  where  it  is  found. 
It  flourishes  with  most  advantage  on  land  that  is  barren,  moun- 
tainous, sandy  and  dry.  Such  a  soil  it  finds  on  the  hills  just 
over  against  Jerusalem  on  the  east,  where,  accordingly,  it  has 
been  so  common  as  to  give  name  to  the  whole  tractr— the  cele- 
brated MOUNT  OF  OLIVES.  The  Olive  is  a  handsome  tiee, 
with  wide  spreading  branches,  and  leaves  resembling  thos<'  of 
tho  willow,  which  continue  green  all  the  year.  Its  trun>  i* 


Olire  Tree. 


somewhat  knotty,  with  smooth  bark,  and  wood  of  a  yellowish 
colour.  It  flourishes  about  two  hundred  years.  The  fruit, 
when  it  becomes  ripe,  is  black,  and  pleasant  to  the  taste ;  nearly 
all  of  it  is  thrown  into  the  oil-press.  The  oil  thus  procured  has 
tlways  been  highly  esteemed.  The  olive  has  been  the  emblem 


3l>  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

of  peace  among  all  nations  j  perhaps,  because  an  olive-branch, 
brought  by  the  dove  to  Noah  in  the  ark,  was  the  first  sign 
which  he  received  of  peace  restored  between  Heaven  and  earth, 
after  the  bursting  forth  of  God's  awful  wrath  in  the  waters  of 
the  flood.  It  was  also  the  symbol  of  prosperity  of  every  kind. 
The  oil  likewise  became  the  emblem  of  gladness  and  joy,  and 
more  especially  of  the  cheering  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  There 
are,  also,  JJYA/-V/r<x  in  that  country,  of  no  value  in  themselves, 
but  capable  of  being  grafted  into  others.  (Rom.  xi.  IT — 24.) 

The  Fiy  tree  delights  also  in  dry  and  sandy  soils  It  grows, 
in  the  east,  to  a  considerable  size ;  not  rising  altogether  straight 
in  its  trunk,  but  often  reaching  a  goodly  height,  and  dividing 
itself  into  a  great  number  of  branches,  well  furnished  with  broad 
leaves,  so  as  to  form  a  very  agreeable  shade.  It  was  customary, 


Fig  Tree. 

among  the  Jews,  to  rest  themselves  under  its  friendly  covering 
(Mic.  iv.  4.)  Nathanacl,  it  seems,  was  accustomed  to  find 
under  the  branches  of  such  a  tree,  a  retreat  for  solemn  medita- 
tion and  prayer.  It  was  a  retirement  so  completely  concealed, 
probably  in  the  midst  of  a  thick  cluster  of  other  trees,  that  he 
was  well  persuaded  no  eye  could  see  him  there,  except  the  all- 
exploring  eye  of  God.  (John  i.  48 — 50.)  The  fruit  of  the 
fig  tree  makes  its  appearance  before  the  leaves,  growing  from 
the  trunk  and  large  branches,  and  not  from  the  smaller  shoots, 
as  the  fruit  of  other  trees  usually  does.  There  are  three  kinds, 
ripening  at  different  seasons  of  the  year.  1.  The  first-ripe 
Fiy,  which  appears  in  the  latter  part  of  March,  and  becomes 
ripe  towaird  the  end  of  June ;  this  is  the  best  sort.  (Hos.  ix. 
10,  Jcr.  xxiv.  2.)  2.  The  Su-nnwr  or  Dry  Fit/,  which  appears 
about  the  middle  of  June,  and  becomes  ripe  in  August.  3.  The 
Wiitft-r  /'/'/,  which  appears  in  August,  and  does  not  ripen  till 
about  the  end  of  Novi  mber.  All  figs,  when  ripe,  but  especially 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  61 

the  first-ripe  sort,  fall  of  themselves.  (Nahum  iii.  12.)  It  is 
common  to  dry  them  in  the  sun,  and  preserve  them  in  masses; 
these  are  called  cakes  of  figs.  (1  Sam.  xxv.  18.)  As  fig  trees 
begin  to  sprout  toward  the  end  of  March,  they  became  a  sign 
of  the  approach  of  summer :  "  Now  learn  a  parable  of  the  fig 
tree ;  when  his  branch  is  yet  tender,  and  putteth  forth  leaves, 
ye  know  that  summer  is  nigh."  (Matt.  xxiv.  32.) 

The  Sycamore  tree,  or  Sycamine,  as  it  is  sometimes  called, 
abounds  especially  in  Egypt,  but  is  also  common  in  the  low 
lands  of  Palestine.  In  size  and  figure,  and  in  the  appearance 
of  its  leaves,  it  bears  much  resemblance  to  the  mulberry  tree. 
Its  fruit  grows  in  clusters  on  little  sprigs  like  grape-stalks,  which 
shoot  out  directly  from  the  trunk  :  it  resembles  the  fig;  on 
which  account,  the  tree  is  sometimes  styled  the  Egyptian  fig 
tree.  The  body  of  the  tree  is  very  large,  and  it  has  numerous 
branches  growing  out  from  it,  almost  in  a  straight  direction. 
On  this  account,  it  is  particularly  easy  to  be  climbed.  On  one 
which  stood  by  the  road,  Zaccheus  climbed,  to  see  the  Lord. 
(Luke  xix.  4.)  It  is  always  green.  The  wood,  which  is  of  a 
dark  colour,  will  last  a  thousand  years ;  on  this  account,  it  was 
much  used  in  building.  The  fruit  is  so  sweet  as  to  be  hurtful 
10  the  stomach,  and  therefore  is  not  eaten,  except  by  the  poorer 
class,  who  have  nothing  better.  Amos,  the  prophet,  was  em- 
ployed in  gathering  sycamore  fruit ;  a  business  that  was  pretty 
troublesome ;  for  before  it  will  get  ripe,  it  must  all  be  opened 
with  the  nail,  or  a  piece  of  iron,  to  let  out  the  milky  juice; 
and  this  seems  to  have  been  his  principal  work.  The  tree 
yields  fruit  several  times  through  the  year,  without  regard  to 
particular  seasons. 

The  Pomegranate  tree  grows  in  almost  all  countries  of  Ihe 
east.  It  does  not  rise  high,  and  at  a  little  distance  from  the 
ground  shoots  out  into  a  multitude  of  branches,  so  as  to  appear 
like  a  large  shrub.  It  bears  large,  handsome,  reddish  blossoms, 
shaped  like  bells.  The  fruit  which  these  produce  is  very  beau- 
tiful to  the  eye  and  pleasant  to  the  taste.  It  is  about  the  size 
of  a  large  apple,  perfectly  round,  encircled  at  the  upper  part 
with  something  resembling  a  crown,  and  covered  with  a  rind 
which  is  thick  and  hard,  but  easily  broken.  The  juice  which 
it  affords,  is  sometimes  made  into  a  kind  of  wine  by  itself,  and 
sometimes  mixed  with  other  wine,  to  give  it  more  sharpness: 
mention  is  made  of  the  spiced  wine  of  the  juice  of  the  pome- 
granate. (Song  viii.  2.)  Artificial  pomegranates,  made  to  re- 
Bcmble  the  natural  ones,  were  esteemed,  among  the  Jews,  a 
considerable  ornament;  they  were  hung  round  the  hem  of  the 

4 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


high  priest's  robe,  (Ex.  xxviii.  33,)  and  on  the  net  work  which 
covered  the  tops  of  the  two  pillars,  Jachin  and  B?az,  in  the 
temple  of  Solomon,  (1  Kings  vii.  18.) 


Pomegranate  Tr»e. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  89 

Orange  and  Lemon  trees  are  not  common  in  Palestine ;  but 
they  have  been  probably  brought  there  from  some  more  eastern 
country,  in  later  times,  as  they  are  not  mentioned  in  the  Sacred 
Volume. 

The  Apple  tree  is  mentioned  with  peculiar  praise  :  "  As  the 
apple  tree  among  the  trees  of  the  wood,  so  is  my  beloved  among 
the  sons;  I  sat  down  under  his  shadow  with  great  delight,  and 
his  fruit  was  sweet  to  my  taste,"  (Song  ii.  3 ;)  but  the  tree 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  call  by  this  name  does  not  thrive 
well  in  the  east,  and  bears  only  indifferent  fruit;  it  is  generally 
agreed,  therefore,  that  the  apple  tree  of  the  Scripture  is  the  same 
as  the  Citron  tree.  This  is  a  tree  of  noble  appearance  and  great 
size,  furnished  with  beautiful  leaves  through  the  whole  year, 
and  affording  a  most  delightful  shadow.  The  fruit  is  very 
sweet  and  pleasant,  of  the  colour  of  gold,  extremely  fragrant, 
and  proper  to  refresh  such  as  are  weary  or  faint.  Words  fitly 
spoken,  Solomon  tells  us,  are  like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of 
silver.  (Prov.  xxv.  11.) 

The  Palm  tree  is  not  now  often  found  in  Palestine :  the  reason 
is,  because  it  needs  careful  and  skilful  cultivation,  which  the 
state  of  that  country  has  for  a  long  time  prevented.  It  is  still 
very  common  in  other  regions  of  the  east,  and,  as  it  appears 
from  the  Bible,  once  abounded  in  Judea.  On  ancient  coins  of 
the  Jews,  also,  the  figure  of  the  palm  tree  is  found  sometin?^ 
stamped,  often  with  a  sheaf  of  wheat 
and  a  cluster  of  grapes,  as  a  symbol 
of  their  nation.  It  rises  perfectly 
straight  to  a  very  great  height,  with- 
out any  limbs,  except  near  its  top, 
which  is  crowned  with  continual 
green.  It  grows  most  commonly 
in  valleys  and  plains:  the  finest 
groves  of  it,  anciently,  were  found  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Jordan,  es- 
pecially in  the  plains  of  Jericho, 
which  city  was,  on  this  account, 
sometimes  called  the  city  of  palm  trees.  (Judg.  iii.  13.)  The 
palm  tree  produces  dates,  which  grow  in  large  clusters,  and  be- 
come ripe  in  August,  September,  and  Octobei  These  are 
•  pleasant  to  eat,  and  are  often  preserved  a  long  time  in  solid 
masses,  after  the  juice  has  been  forced  out  with  a  press.  The 
juice  makes  the  date  wine.  The  palm  is  considered,  by  eastein 
people,  to  be  the  most  noble  and  excellent  of  all  trees ;  hence, 
a  beautiful  person  is  compared  to  it,  (Song  vii.  7,)  and  also 
a  religious,  upright  man.  (Ps.  icii.  12.)  It  pectns  to  l«* 


40  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

intended,  in  tnat  beautiful  image  of  the  first  Psaim :  -'He 
shall  be  like  a  tnv  />/'i>tted  by  the  rivers  o/icot'-r,  that  bringeth 
forth  his  fruit  in  his  season;  his  leaf  oho  shall  not  wither."  It 
was  usual  to  scatter  branches  of  palm  in  the  way  before  kings, 
when  they  entered,  on  public  occasions,  into  cities;  it  was, 
therefore,  a  mark  of  highest  honour  to  the  Saviour,  when  the 
people  "  took  branches  of  palm  trees  and  went  forth  to  meet 
him,"  (John  xii.  13,)  and  strewed  them  before  him,  as  he  en- 
tered into  Jerusalem.  (Matt.  xxi.  8.)  In  the  Grecian  games, 
those  who  conquered  were  rewarded,  frequently,  with  a  branch 
of  palm  :  to  this  there  is  allusion  in  the  vision  of  St.  John : 
"  I  beheld,  and  lo,  a  great  multitude  which  no  man  could  num- 
ber  stood  before  the  throne  and  the  Lamb,  clothed  with 

white  robes,  and  palms  in  tlu'lr  lunufs."  (Rev.  vii.  9.)  This 
denotes  victory  over  Satan  and  sin,  crowned  with  the  reward  of 
eternal  glory.  The  likeness  of  the  palm  tree  was  often  carved 
in  ornamental  work. 

The  Balsam  or  Balm  tree  also  grew  formerly  in  Palestine, 
though,  for  want  of  culture,  it  is  not  found  there  now.  It  is 
still  raised  in  some  parts  of  Arabia  and  Egypt.  There  are 
three  kinds  of  it;  two  growing  like  shrubs,  the  other  a  regular 
tree.  The  balm,  mentioned  in  the  Bible  as  an  article  of  com- 
merce and  a  valuable  medicine,  is  made  either  of  the  sap  of  the 
tree,  or  of  the  juice  of  its  fruit.  Gardens  of  balm  were,  at  a 
very  early  period,  cultivated  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Jerichq 
and  Engedi,  and  also  in  Gilead :  the  balm  of  Gilead  was  par- 
ticularly esteemed.  fGen.  xxxvii.  25,  Jer.  viii.  22.) 

The  Almond  tree  is  the  first  to  blossom  in  the  opening  year. 
It  is  covered  with  its  snow-white  flowers  in  the  latter  part  of 
January,  and  before  the  end  of  March  displays  its  ripe  fruit. 
The  rod  of  an  aluioii'l  tree,  seen  by  Jeremiah  in  vision,  denoted, 
from  this  circumstance,  the  rapid  approach  of  God's  threatened 
judgments  :  "  Thou  hast  well  seen ;  for  I  will  hasten  my  word 
to  perform  it."  (Jer.  i.  12.) 

The  Vine  deserves  especial  mention.  It  was,  no  doubt,  cul- 
tivated before  the  flood,  as  Noah,  immediately  after  coming  out 
of  the  ark,  planted  a  vineyard  am/  drunk  <>f  lh>  vine.  The 
Boil  of  Palestine  was  of  the  best  sort  for  raising  it ;  and  hence 
it  became  a  principal  object  of  attention  to  the  Jewish  Imsband- 
tnan.  In  particular  the  mountains  of  Engedi  and  the  valleys 
of  Eshcol  and  Soreic  were  celebrated  for  their  grapes.  These 
places  were  all  in  the  territory  which  fell  to  the  tribe  of  Judah. 
There  seems  to  be  an  allusion  to  this  advantage,  in  the  blessing 
pronounced  upon  that  tribe,  jnn|ih(  tically,  by  the  dying  Jacob  • 
1  Binding  his  foal  to  the  vine,  and  his  ass's  colt  unto  the  choice 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 


4t 


Almond  Tree. 

me ,  he  washed  his  garments  in  wine,  and  his  clothes  in  the 
blood  of  grapes."  (Gen.  xlix.  11.)  The  clusters  of  grapes 
prow,  in  that  country,  at  the  present  day,  to  the  weight  of  twelve 
pounds;  in  ancient  times,  no  doubt,  they  were  often  larger. 
One  of  these  great  clusters,  from  the  vale  of  Eshcol,  the  spies 
brought  to  Moses,  as  a  sample  of  the  fruitfulness  of  the  land, 
bearing  it  between  two,  on  a  staff,  that  its  large  grapes  might 
not  be  bruised  together.  (Numb.  xiii.  23,  24.)  Some  vines,  in 
growing,  ran  along  the  ground ;  others  grew  upright  of  them- 
selves, without  any  support ;  while  a  thinl  sort  needed  a  pole  01 
frame,  to  assist  them  in  rising,  and  t/.  bear  up  their  weight. 
Vineyards  were  generally  planted  upon  the  sides  of  hills  and 
mountains,  toward  the  south.  The  Palestine  grapes  are  mostly 
red  or  black ;  whence  the  common  expression,  the  blood  of 
grapes.  The  vine  was  sometimes  employed  to  make  sceptres 
for  kings.  To  sit  under  a  man's  own  vine  and  fiy  tree,  was  a 
phrase  signifying  a  state  of  prosperity  and  peace.  (Mic.  iv.  4.) 
Our  Lord  compares  himself  to  a  vine  :  "  I  ain  the  true  vine  and 
my  Father  is  the  husbandman.  I  am  the  vine ;  ye  are  the 
branches."  (John  xv.  1,  5.)  As  the  trunk,  planted  and  dressed 
bv  the  husbandman's  care,  affords  life  and  nourishment  to 


B1BMCAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


Palestine  Grapes. 

its  "branches,  and  enables  them  to  bring  forth  clusters  of  grapes ; 
so  is  He  the  source  of  all  spiritual  life  and  strength  and  fruit- 
fulness,  to  his  people,  appointed  of  God  the  Father,  and  sent 
forth  into  the  world,  that  he  might  become  such  to  every  one 
that  believeth  on  his  name.  The  Jewish  nation  is  also  com- 
pared to  a  vine,  and  to  a  vineyard,  to  denote  the  kind  care  which 
it  had  received  from  God.  (Ps.  Ixxx.  8,  Is.  v.  1.) 

The  Vine  of  Sodom  grows  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Jericho, 
not  far  from  the  Dead  Sea.  It  produces  grapes  of  a  poisonous 
kind,  bitter  as  gall.  Moses  compares  the  rebellious  Israelites  to 
this  plant :  "  Their  vine  is  the  vine  of  Sodom,  and  of  the  fields 
of  Gomorrah  ;  their  grapes  are  grapes  of  gall,  and  their  clusters 
are  bitter."  (Deut.  xxxii.  32.) 

PLANTS. 

Of  Plants  belonging  to  Palestine,  there  are  mentioned  in  the 
Bible  .several  of  useful  or  agreeable  character,  and  some  of  hurt- 
ful and  unlovely  sort.  The  Lily  displays  uncommon  elegance 
in  that  country :  "  Solomon,"  we  are  told,  "  in  all  his  glory, 
was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these."  (Matt.  vi.  29.)  Here,  t<><>, 
we  may  notice  the  Rose,  though  of  a  somewhat  higher  class.  A 
great  many  kinds  of  it  are  found  in  the  east ;  some  of  them  very 
ren.arkable  for  the  richness  and  b-  auty  of  their  flowers,  and  the 
delightful  fragrance  which  they  send  forth.  The  rose  of  Sharon 
was  pjirtirularly  fine,  in  ancient  days.  (Songii.  1.)  The  Mand- 
rake in  a  kind  of  melon,  with  pleasant  smell  and  taste.  Th# 


BH  jICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  * 

Mutfnrd-planl  rises  from  the  smallest  seed  into  the  likeuess  of  a 
tree.  (Matt.  xiii.  32.)^  It  presents  a  remarkable  growth  among 
herbs,  in  our  own  country ;  but  in  that  region  rises  and  spreads 
ite  branches  to  a  much  greater  extent.  The  Spikenard  is  a 
much  esteemed  plant :  only  an  inferior  kind  of  it,  however,  is 
found  in  the  region  where  Palestine  lies ;  the  true  Spikenard, 
or  Nard,  belongs  to  India,  in  the  more  distant  east.  It  grows 
in  large  tufts,  rising  upward  like  tall  grass,  and  has  a  strong 
aromatic  smell.  An  ointment  of  the  most  precious  kind  is  made 
out  of  it,  which  anciently  was  exceedingly  prized,  and  purchased 
with  great  expense  in  different  countries.  A  box  of  it,  contain- 
ing a  pound,  was  valued,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  at  more 
than  three  hundred  pence.  So  much  Mary  poured  on  his  head, 
a  short  time  before  his  death ;  and  the  house  was  fitted  with  the 
odour.  (John  xii.  3.)  The  Aloe  is  a  plant  with  broad  prickly 
leaves,  nearly  two  inches  thick,  which  grows  about  two  feet  high. 
A  very  bitter  gum  is  procured  from  it,  used  as  a  medicine,  and 
anciently  for  the  embalming  of  dead  bodies.  Nicodemus  brought 
a  hundred  pounds  of  myrrh  and  aloes,  to  embalm  the  body  of 
the  Redeemer.  (John  xix.  39.)  Besides  this  herb,  however, 
which  is  found  in  eastern  countries  generally,  there  is  a  small 
tree,  with  beautiful  flowers  and  most  fragrant  wood,  that  grows 
in  India  under  the  same  name.  The  Hyssop  is  a  small  herb, 
growing  on  mountainous  lands,  with  bushy  stalks  about  a  foot 
and  a  half  high.  The  leaves  of  it  have  an  aromatic  smell,  and 
a  warm  bitter  taste.  It  is  found  abundantly  on  the  hills  near 
Jerusalem.  Cucumbers  and  various  kinds  of  Melons  were  cul- 
tivated among  the  Jews.  Egypt,  however,  produces  the  finest 
melons.  The  Water  mdon,  especially,  is  raised  with  great  ad- 
vantage, on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and-  furnishes  a  most  agree- 
able refreshment  in  the  warm  climate  of  that  country.  Many 
poor  people  live  on  them  almost  entirely,  w"hile  they  last.  The 
Israelites  remembered  them  i?  the  wilderness,  as  well  as  the 
Leek*  and  the  Onions,  with  longing  desire.  /Numb.  xi.  5.) 
Onions  in  Egypt  are  better  than  they  are  anywhere  else  :u  the 
world,  being  sweet  and  pleasant  to  the  taste,  without  the  hard- 
ness which  commonly  makes  them  unfit  to  be  eaten.  Tho 
Thistle  and  the  Nettle,  besides  several  kinds  of  thorns  and  bram- 
bles, were  common  in  the  fields  of  the  Jewish  farmer.  He  was 
also  troubled  with  the  Tare.  This  tare  seems  to  have  been  the 
same  weed  that  is  now  called  Darnel,  still  known  in  that  coun- 
try, as  well  as  in  many  others.  It  often  gets  among  wheat  and 
other  grain,  after  the  manner  of  cockle  and  other  such  hurtful 
plants.  The  bread  made  of  grain  in  which  much  of  its  seed  u 
found,  is  very  unwholesome;  it  creates  dizziness, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

*nd  headache.  It  is  all-important,  therefore,  to  separate  it 
from  the  crop.  This,  however,  canuot  well  be  done  while  it  is 
growing  in  the  field ;  because  its  roots  are  so  connected  with 
those  of  the  wheat,  that  to  pluck  up  the  one  would  materially 
injure  the  other.  ( .Matt.  xiii.  24-r-30.) 

The  different  sorts  of  grain  raised  by  the  Jews,  were,  Wheat^ 
which  grows  in  almost  every  country ;  Millet,  a  coarse  kind  of 
grain,  eaten  by  the  poorer  people ;  Spelt,  Barley,  Beans,  Lex? 
tils,  Pitches,  Anise  and  Cummin.  The  two  last  were  common 
email  herl« :  the  Pharisees  pretended  to  great  religious  scrupu- 
losity, by  carefuly  paying  tithes  of  these  and  other  little  garden 
plants,  such  a.s  Mint  and  Rue,  while  they  neglected  "the  weight- 
ier matters  of  the  law,  judgment,  mercy,  and  faith."  (Matt,  xxiii 
23,  Luke  xi.  42.)  Flax,  also,  and  Cotton,  were  cultivated. 
Cotton  grows  in  large  pods,  either  on  trees  of  considerable  size, 
or  on  shrubs  that  spring  up  from  the  seed,  and  last  only  one 
year.  The  word  Corn,  in  Scripture,  is  used  as  a  general  name 
for  all  dorts  of  grain.  Rye  and  oats  do  not  grow  in  countries 
where*  the  climate  is  so  warm :  their  place  is  supplied  "by  barley. 

From  this  general  survey  of  its  different  productions,  we  may 
learn  how  extremely  fruitful  Palestine  must  have  been,  in  the 
days  of  its  ancient  prosperity  and  peace.  Every  variety  of  soil 
had  its  use ;  some  valuable  tree  or  plant  growing  better  upon  it, 
than  upon  any  other;  so  that  the  poorest  and  the  roughest 
grounds  yielded,  oftentimes,  as  much  as  the  fairest  and  most 
rich.  While  the  different  kinds  of  grain  flourished  on  the  more 
level  and  fertile  tracts,  plantations  of  the  serviceable  olive 
covered  the  barren  and  sandy  hil1*;  the  low  watery  soils  of  clay 
nourished  groves  of  the  -toll  and  beautiful  palm ;  the  steepest 
mountain  sides  were  hung  with  the  rich  dark  clusters  of  the  vine. 
By  the  hand  of  industry,  the  naked  rocks,  on  such  steep  places, 
were  covered  with  earth,  and  walls  were  builded  to  hinder  it 
from  being  swept  away  with  the  showers.  So,  from  the  bottom 
to  the  top,  might  sometimes  be  seen,  rising  one  above  another, 
plot  after  plot  thus  raised  by  labour  and  art,  where  the  vine  was 
reared  by  the  husbandman's  care,  and  rewarded  his  toil  with  ita 
plentiful  fruit.  As  every  family  had  only  a  small  piece  of  ground 
to  till,  every  foot  of  it  that  could  be  improved  was  cultivated, 
and  no  pains  were  spared  to  turn  it  to  its  best  account.  Hence, 
the  land  had  the  appearance  of  a  garden,  and  yielded  support  to 
a  vast  number  of  inhabitants.  The  country  of  Lower  Galilee, 
especially,  has  been  celebrated  for  its  fruitfulness.  According 
to  the  testimony  of  Josephus,  the  Jewish  historian,  who  lived 
just  after  the  time  of  Christ,  that  part  of  it  which  border  td  on 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  Ait 

tiit;  lake  cf  Gennesareth,  where  our  Lord  spent  so  much  of  his 
time,  was  especially  remarkable  for  the  great  variety  and  plenty 
of  its  productions;  every  plant  seemed  to  thrive  in  it;  fruits 
that  naturally  grow  in  different  climates  were  raised  with  equal 
ease  here ;  so  that  it  seemed,  says  that  writer,  as  if  God  had 
taken  a  peculiar  delight  in  that  region,  and  the  seasons  had 
rivalled  each  other  in  the  richness  of  their  gifts. 

But  when  the  traveller  passes  through  Palestine  now,  his  eye 
meets  no  such  scenery  of  fruitfulness  and  beauty,  over  its  moun- 
tains and  plains.  Large  tracts  of  the  country  seem  a  barren 
waste ;  the  rich  covering  of  the  field  is  gone,  and  the  hills  are 
stripped  of  the  vine ;  a  thinly  scattered  people  live  in  compara- 
tive poverty  and  idleness,  where  once  the  many  thousands  of 
Israel  and  Judah  found  plentiful  support.  The  country,  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  has  been  given  up  to  be  wasted  by 
war  and  crushed  by  oppression.  Its  people  have  been  driven 
away  and  trampled  under  foot,  by  cruel  enemies.  The  whole 
land  is  nor;  under  the  dominion  of  the  Turks,  who,  instead  of 
encouraging  industry,  leave  it  without  protection  and  without 
profit.  The  farmer  has  no  motive  to  plough  and  sow ;  his  crops 
would  grow  up  only  to  be  plundered  by  wandering  Arabs ;  and 
if  he  could  secure  any  property,  it  would  only  expose  him  to 
danger  from  the  avarice  of  some  tyrant  officer  of  the  government, 
determined  to  seize  it  all  for  himself.  No  wonder,  then,  that 
"the  fruitful  land  has  been  turned  into  barrenness."  It  has 
been  done,  however,  "  for  the  wickedness  of  them  that  dwelt 
therein,"  and  is  a  wonderful  fulfilment  of  the  threatenings  of 
God,  delivered  even  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Moses,  (Deut.  xxix. 
22 — 28,)  and  repeated  by  the  prophets  that  followed  after. 


SLOTION  II. 
OF    ANIMALS. 

IT  would  require  a  volume  to  describe  the  different  sorts  of 
insects,  reptiles,  fishes,  birds,  and  beasts,  that  are  found  in  Pa- 
lestine. Many  of  them  are  found,  also,  in  our  own  country,  and 
have  been  known  to  us  all  our  lives ;  but  many  others  are  pecu- 
liar to  the  cast.  We  can  only  notice  a  few  which  are  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  Bible. 

QUADRUPEDS. 

The  Horse.  This  useful  animal  is  first  mentioned  in  the  bin- 
tory  of  Jacob  and  JOK  ph.  It  was,  in  their  time,  found  in 
Egypt,  and  continued,  long  after,  to  be  much  used  in  that  land 


46  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

It  seems  to  have  lived  at  first,  in  its  wild  stat->  in  some  part  of 
Africa,  and  in  the  northern  regions  of  Asia.  The  Jews  mado 
no  use  of  horses  before  the  time  of  Solomon;  their  country  was 
too  hilly  for  them  to  be  of  any  service  in  war,  and  it  was  not 
usual  then  to  use  them  as  beasts  of  burden  or  labour  in  times 
of  peace.  Much  use  of  them  seems,  indeed,  to  be  discouraged 
in  the  law  of  Moses,  as  it  is  expressly  forbidden  for  any  future 
king  to  miiltifili/  Imws.  (Dent,  xvii.  10.)  Joshua  also  was  com- 
manded of  God,  when  he  took  horses  in  war,  to  cut  their  ham- 
strings ;  and  the  same  thing  was  long  after  done  by  David. 
This  was  the  quickest  way  of  rendering  them  useless  for  time  to 
come,  as  it  completely  disabled  them  at  once,  and  soon  caused 
them  to  die.  Solomon  carried  on  a  great  trade  in  horses;  they 
were  brought  in  great  numbers,  in  his  day,  from  Egypt.  After 
his  time,  they  were  never  uncommon  in  the  country.  The  rider, 
in  those  times,  had  no  saddle,  but  sat  merely  upon  a  piece  of 
cloth. 

The  Ox.  Cattle  of  the  ox  kind  are  smaller  in  eastern  coun- 
tries than  with  us,  and  have  something  of  a  lump  on  the  back, 
just  over  the  fore-feet.  The  finest  kind  were  raised  in  the  rich 
pastures  of  Bashan,  where  they  became  very  fat  and  strong, 
and  sometimes  exceedingly  fierce.  These  animals  were  highly 
esteemed  among  the  Jews  for  their  usefulness,  and  seem  to  have 
held  pretty  much  the  same  rank  of  importance  with  the  farmer 
that  the  horse  has  among  us.  Bulls  and  cows  were  both  used 
to  the  yoke,  and.  employed  to  draw  the  cart  and  the  plough, 
and  tread  out  the  grain  when  it  was  gathered  to  the  threshing- 
floor.  A  particular  law  was  made  by  God,  that  the  ox  should 
not  be  muzzled,  or  have  his  mouth  bound,  when  he  was  engaged 
in  this  last  employment  (Deut.  xxv.  4,  1  Cor.  ix.  9,  1  Tim. 
v.  18.)  Besides  the  labour  of  the  animal,  however,  the  cow 
was  valued,  as  with  us,  for  her  milk,  which  was  either  drunk  in 
its  simple  state,  or  made  into  cheese  of  various  kinds.  Horns 
are  frequently  used  in  the  Bible  as  the  sign  of  strength  and 
power :  to  have  the  liorn  exalted,  d  aotes  prosperity  and  triumph, 
(Ps.  Ixxxix.  17,  24 ;)  to  have  it  cut  off,  signifies  the  loss  of 
power.  "All  (he  horns  of  the  wicked,"  says  David,  "will  I 
cut  off;  but  the  horns  of  the  righteous  shall  be  exalted."  (Ps. 
Ixxv.  10.)  To  lift  up  the  htsrn,  is  to  act  proudly.  Christ  ia 
called  a  horn  of  salvation,  because  he  is  miyhty  to  redeem  to 
the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him.  (Luke  i.  69.) 

The  Ass.  In  the  east,  thi?  animal  has  nothing  of  the  mean 
character  that  belongs  to  it  in  our  country.  Asses,  there,  are 
not  only  fit.  for  hard  labour,  but  are,  at  the  same  time,  active 
and  beautiful  in  appearance.  In  early  times,  they  mado  a  lar^e 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  47 

part  of  the  property  of  the  more  wealthy :  hence,  they  are  always 
mentioned,  in  Scripture,  in  giving  an  account  of  the  possessions 
01  Hny  of  toe  ancient  patriarchs.  They  were  used  to  carry  bur- 
dens of  every  kind,  and  made  to  draw  in  ploughing  and  haul- 
ing Anciently,  princes  and  great  men  always  rode  upon 
asses ;  and  it  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  mark  of  di» 
tinction,  to  be  so  mounted.  As  an  evidence  of  the  greatness 
and  wealth  of  one  of  the  Judges,  Jair  the  Gileadite,  it  is  said, 
"  he  had  thirty  sons,  that  rode  upon  thirty  ass-colts,  and  they 
had  thirty  cities,"  (Judg.  x.  4  ;)  and  of  another,  that  he  "  had 
forty  sons  and  thirty  nephews,  that  rode  on  seventy  ass-colts/' 
(Judg.  xii.  14.)  Our  Saviour,  in  fulfilment  of  a  prophecy  of 
Zechariah,  (ix.  9,)  entered  Jerusalem  riding  upon  an  ass, 
amidst  the  acclamations  of  a  multitude  of  people.  This  was  the 
only  instance,  during  his  life,  in  which  he  assumed  any  regal 
pomp ;  and  even  this  manifestation  of  himself  as  a  king,  was 
connected  with  circumstances  of  deep  humiliation.  (Matt. 
xxi.  5.)  "  Behold  thy  king  cometh  unto  thee  :  he  is  just  and 
having  salvation ;  lowly,  and  riding  on  an  ass,  and  upon  a  colt, 
the  foal  of  an  ass."  Moreover,  as  horses  were  especially  used 
in  times  of  war,  and  asses  were  of  most  service  in  days  of  peace, 
to  ride  upon  an  ass  represented  a  meek  and  peaceful  character, 
and  was,  therefore,  beautifully  appropriate  for  the  King  of 
Salem — the  Prince  of  Peace.  The  coronation  entry  of  the 
kings  of  Israel  into  Jerusalem,  was  made  upon  asses. — Asses 
in  the  east  are  of  a  flaxen  colour,  with  silvery  white  along  the 
belly.  In  their  wild  state,  they  are  sometimes  altogether 
white ;  such,  in  the  days  of  the  Judges,  were  highly  esteemed. 
(Judg.  v.  10.)  Asses  are  still  used  in  Egypt  for  riding:  they 
are  very  handsome  in  that  country. 

Wild  asses  abound  in  the  east.  They  are  beautiful  and  very 
wild;  easily  taking  alarm;  and  when  they  fly  through  the 
desert,  they  outstrip  every  other  animal  in  swiftness  of  foot.  A 
description  of  this  animal  is  found  in  Job.  (xxxix.  5 — 8.)  It 
has  power  to  smell  water  at  a  great  distance  '.  this  is  referred 
to  in  the  description  of  a  great  drought.  "  The  wild  asses  did 
Btand  in  the  high  places :  they  snuffed  up  the  wind  like  dra- 
gons." (Jer.  xiv.  6.)  Travellers  who  want  to  find  water,  arc 
accustomed  to  follow  them. 

The  Mule,  was  known  very  early,  and  considerably  used  for 
carrying  burdens.  They  are  very  sure-footed  animals ;  kings  and 
princes  often  rode  upon  them :  thus  David  was  carried  on  a 
mule  kept  fur  his  own  use,  and  all  his  sons  rode  upon  animalf 
of  the  same  kind.  Absalom  sat  on  one  when  he  passed  undoi 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

thv  boughs  of  a  great  oak,  and  was  caught  by  his  head  among 
the  branches. 

^tie  Camel.  There  are  two  kinds  of  this  animal;  one  large 
and  strong,  with  two  bunches  on  the  back ;  the  other  smaller, 
and  more  rapid  in  its  movement,  with  but  one  bunch  on  tho 
back.  This  last  is  called  the  Dromedary,  or  Arabian  Camel ; 
it  bears  heat  better  than  the  other.  The  camel  seems  to  have 
been  formed  expressly  for  the  eastern  countries;  so  that  we 
cannot  conceive  how  they  could  dispense  with  its  services.  It 
carries  an  immense  burden,  needs  but  little  food,  and  can  go 
without  water  a  whole  month  :  all  this  fits  it  exactly  for  bearing 
merchandise  in  those  regions;  where  they  have  often  to  passi 
wide  sandy  desert  without  water,  in  going  from  one  country  to 
another.  The  camel  is  sometimes 
rode  upon,  as  it  is  common  to  ride 
on  horses.  At  other  times,  two 
long  chairs,  like  cradles,  are  fixed 
over  its  back,  one  on  each  side, 
or  two  large  basket-like  seats  are 
thrown  across  so  as  to  balance 
each  other.  In  each  of  these  a 
traveller  may  sit  at  his  ease,  or 
even  resign  himself  to  sleep  with- 
out inconvenience.  Sometimes  a 
little  covered  room  is  fastened  on 
its  back,  in  which  the  traveller  may  carry  with  him  some  little 
furniture,  and  shut  himself,  if  he  please,  entirely  out  of  sight. 
This  kind  of  conveyance  is  used  chiefly  by  women.  Perhaps 
in  something  of  the  sort  Rebecca  was  riding,  with  the  curtains 
rolled  up,  when  she  saw  Isaac  walking  in  the  field,  and  lighted 
off  the  camel  to  receive  him.  The  hair  of  the  camel  is  woven 
sometimes  into  a  coarse  kind  of  cloth,  used  by  the  poorer 
people.  John  the  Baptist  "had  his  raiment  of  camel's  hair, 
with  a  leathern  girdle  round  his  loins."  (Matt.  iii.  4.)  To  the 
Jews,  the  camel  was  an  uncloan  animal,  not  allowed  to  be  used 
for  food;  but  the  Arabs  eat  its  flesh  and  drink  its  milk.  Tc 
pass  a  camel  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  was  a  proverb,  to  de- 
note any  thing  extremely  difficult,  or  impossible.  (Matt,  xix 
?4.) 

The  Sheep.  The  common  kind  of  this  animal,  so  well 
known  among  us,  is  found  in  Palestine ;  but  there  is  in  that 
country  a  breed  something  larger,  and  clothed  with  finer  wool. 
These  are  remarkable  for  having  very  large,  broad  tails.  Their 
tails  are  esteemed  a  particular  delicacy,  being  of  a  substance  be- 
tween fat  and  marrow;  they  have  an  excellent  richness,  and 


BIBLICAL     ANTIQUITIES.  49 

«re  sometimes  used  instead  of  butter.  On  this  account,  the 
whole  rump,  taken  off  hard  by  the  bac/c-bone,  was  appointed  in 
peace-offerings,  to  be  burnt  with  the  other  fat  upon  the  altar, 
for  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord.  (Lev.  iii.  9.)  Thousands 
of  sheep,  in  early  days,  were  sometimes  owned  by  one  man, 
ranging  the  pastures  of  the  wilderness,  and  continually  adding 
to  the  wealth  of  their  possessor.  They  bring  forth  their  young 
twice  in  the  year,  and  frequently  bear  twins.  Their  flesh  ia 
nsoi  tor  food ;  and  their  milk  supplies  a  wholesome  drink.  But 
they  are  chiefly  valuable  for  the  fine  fleeces  of  wool,  which, 
tvice  in  the  year,  are  shorn  from  their  backs.  The  sheep  iu 
that  country  become  very  familiar  with  the  shepherd,  and  know 
his  voice  when  he  speaks.  (John  x.  3,  14.)  The  flocks  live 
both  night  and  day  under  the  open  sky,  and  are  only  brought 
into  the  sheep/old  at  the  times  of  shearing.  The  sheep  is  a 
weak  and  timid  animal,  unable  to  defend  itself,  without  much 
wisdom,  and  needing  the  continual  care  of  a  keeper,  to  be  kept 
from  wandering  into  danger,  or  losing  itself  among  the  moun- 
tains. Hence,  it  is  frequently  referred  to  in  the  figurative  lan- 
guage of  Scripture,  to  represent  a  condition  of  helplessness  or 
folly  :  "  My  people,"  says  God,  "  have  been  lost  sheep ;  they 
have  gone  from  mountain  to  hill;  they  have  forgotten  their 
resting-place."  (Isa.  1.  6.)  "  All  we  like  sheep  have  gone 
astray ;  we  have  turned  every  one  to  his  own  way."  (Isa.  liii. 
6.)  "When  he  saw  the  multitudes  he  was  moved  with  com- 
passion on  them,  because  they  fainted,  and  were  scattered 
abroad,  as  sheep  havimj  ?io  shepherd."  (Matt.  ix.  36.) 

The  Goat.  This  belonged  also  to  the  flock&  of  the  shep- 
herd. There  are  two  kinds  of  this  animal,  as  well  as  of  the 
last,  found  in  the  east :  one,  our  common  goat  j  the  other,  a 
somewhat  larger  race,  remarkable  for  having  large,  broad 
ears,  that  hang  down  a  foot,  and  sometimes  a  foot  and  a  half 
in  length.  Probably  this  kind  was  referred  to  by  Amos,  in 
that  verse,  "  As  the  shepherd  taketh  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
lion,  two  legs  or  a  piece,  of  an  ear,  so,  &c."  (iii.  12.)  The 
goat  yields  a  considerable  quantity  of  milk,  which  ia  very 
eweet,  and  has  always  been  esteemed  more  than  any  other,  iu 
eastern  countries.  Hence,  the  promise  to  the  careful  and  dili- 
gent man  is,  "  Thou  shalt  have  goat's  milk  enough  for  tbj 
food,  for  the  food  of  thy  household,  and  for  the  maintenance 
of  thy  maidens."  (Prov.  xxvii.  27.)  The  Jlesh  of  goats,  alao, 
is  much  prized.  Their  long  black-coloured  hair  is  made  into 
different  kinds  of  cloth,  with  which  the  shepherds  frequently 
cover  their  tents.  The  tabernacle  was  covered  with  curtains 
of  goat's  hair,  spun  by  the  wouieu  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness 

6 


&0  KIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

(Ex.    xxxv.    26.)     It  is  still  the  business  of  the  Arabiaa 

women  to  make  such  cloths.  Some  goats  have  extremely 
fine  hair,  out  of  which  stuffs  are  formed,  almost  equal  to  silk 
in  delicacy  and  beauty.  From  the  akin*  <>f  fhese  animals,  it 
has  been  common,  since  the  earliest  times,  to  form  large 
Ifttli's ;  the  skins  of  kids  are  wrought,  in  some  places,  by 
menus  of  smoke,  into  more  convenient  and  even  elegant  J/u.<ki. 
It  was  forbidden,  by  the  law  of  Moses,  to  "seethe  a  kid  in 
it«?  mother's  milk  ;"  to  enforce,  perhaps,  the  general  duty  of 
a  humane  disposition  toward  animals;  and  it  may  be,  also, 
because  some  practice  of  this  kind  was  common  among  th«: 
superstitious  rites  of  the  heathen. 

The  D<xj.     At  a  very  early   period,   as  we  learn  from  Job. 
Jogs  were  trained  by  shepherds  to  guard  their  flocks.  (Job  xxi 


41 


Street  D^g*  of  Srrl*. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

j .)  They  can  be  taught  to  drive  the  sheep  or  goats  fiom  OTM? 
place  to  another,  to  keep  them  from  straggling  or  wandering 
away,  and  to  manage  them,  in  fact,  with  every  kind  of  care.  In 
their  wild  condition,  however,  they  arc  like  the  wolf,  greedy, 
selfish,  impudent,  quarrelsome  and  savage.  In  the  east,  there 
are  multitudes  of  them  in  this  state ;  they  wander  about,  fre- 
quently in  troops,  hunting  lor  proy,  and  often  attaek  the  strong- 
est and  fiercest  beasts  of  the  forest.  But  they  do  not  confine 
themselves  to  the  wilderness ;  they  choose  rather  to  seek  their 
living  in  towns  and  cities.  Here  they  are  found  in  great  num- 
bers, ranging  the  streets  by  day  and  by  night,  and  greedily  de- 
vouring the  offal  that  is  cast  into  the  gutters  or  about  the 
markets.  As  they  are  sometimes  reduced  almost  to  starvation, 
they  are  ready  to  consume,  human  corpses,  and  in  the  night,  fall 
even  upon  living  men.  From  possessing  this  character,  the  dog, 
where  it  has  not  been  trained  for  hunting,  or  for  watching  flocks, 
has  long  been,  in  that  part  of  the  world,  held  in  great  contempt 
and  abhorrence.  Hence,  in  Scripture,  wicked  men  are  com- 
pared to  dogs.  (  ps.  xxii.  16.)  "They  return  at  evening,"  says 
l>avid  ;  "  they  make  a  noise  like  a  dog,  and  go  round  about  the 
city  ;  they  wander  up  and  down  for  meat,  and  grudge  if  they  be 
not  satisfied."  ( Ps.  lix.  6,  15.)  "(jive  not  that  which  is  holy 
unto  the  dogs."  (Matt.  vii.  I). )  "  IJeware  of  dogs,  beware  of  evil 
workers."  (Phil.  iii.  2.)  "  Without  are  dogs,  and  sorcerers,"  &c. 
(Rev.  xxii.  15.)  To  call  a  man  a  <l<*j,  is  still  exceedingly  re- 
proachful, as  it  was  in  ancient  times.  (2  Sam.  xvi.  9,  2  Kings 
viii  13.)  The  Jews,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  were  accus- 
tomed to  call  the  Gentiles  by  this  contemptuous  epithet;  to 
which  Christ  had  allusion,  when  he  said  to  the  woman  of  Canaan, 
in  order  to  try  her  faith,  "  It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  children's 
bread,  and  to  cast  it  to  the  dogs."  (Matt.  xv.  26.)  In  our 
day,  the  .Mohammedans  in  that  country  still  use  the  same  lan- 
guage of  contempt  towards  those  who  differ  from  them  in  reli- 
gion, especially  Christians  and  Jews,  styling  them  Christian 
ilofjs — JewiiJi  dotjs. 

1I<»I*  were  considered  peculiarly  unclean  by  the  Jews,  and 
«eem  not  to  have  been  kept  in  Palestine,  at  all,  in  earlier  times. 
They  were  considered  the  vilest  of  all  mi  ma  Is,  and  scarcely  named 
in  common  speech.  The  eastern  nations  generally  still  ab- 
staii.  from  eating  pork,  as  in  warm  climates  its  flesh  is  always 
unw  holesome. 

Ti»'-  Linn  is  frequently  mentioned  in  Scripture — the  noblest 
•ind  the  boldest  beast  of  the  forest.  He  moves  with  slow  and 
Tuujestic  step  along  his  way,  and  fears  not  the  face  of  any  liv- 
ing creature.  (Prov.  xxx.  29,  30.)  When  angry,  he  lashe* 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

his  sides  and  the  ground  with  his 
tail,  shakes  his  shaggy  mane, 
knits  his  great  eyebrows,  displays 
his  dreadful  tusks,  and  thrusts 
out  his  tongue :  when  he  roars,  it 
is  like  the  sound  of  distant  thun- 
der; and  as  it  echoes  through  the 
mountains,  all  the  beasts  of  th 
forest  tremble.  "  The  lion  haf 
roared,"  says  the  prophet;  "who 
will  not  fear?"  (Amos  iii.  8.)  Il 
in  said  that  he  roars  only  when  he  is  in  sight  of  his  prey,  or 
striking  it  down  with  his  mighty  paw.  Hence,  the  same  prophet 
says:  "Will  a  lion  roar  in  the  forest,  when  he  hath  no  prey? 
Will  a  yonng  lion  cry  out  of  his  den,  if  he  have  taken  nothing?" 
(Amos  iii.  4.)  Strong  men  are  compared  to  lions.  God  is 
likened  to  a  lion,  because,  when  his  anger  is  kindled  against 
the  wicked,  who  can  withstand  his  power,  or  who  may  abide 
his  wrath  ?  Christ  is  the  Lion  of  Judah — dreadful  to  his  ene- 
mies, as  well  as  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world.  The  Devil  is  a  roaring  lion,  going  about  and 
seeking  whom  he  may  devour.  (1  Pet.  r.  8.) 

The  Unicorn.  The  animal  to  which  this  name  *s  applied 
in  the  Bible,  is  represented  as  a  wild  ungovernable  beast,  re- 
markable for  the  loftiness  either  of  its  stature  or  of  its  horns, 
and  perhaps  of  both;  possessed  of  great  strength,  and  inclined, 
at  times,  to  exercise  it  furiously  and  without  mercy,  even 
against  man.  It  is,  however,  no  easy  matter  to  determine 
which,  of  all  the  animals  that  are  now  known  in  the  east,  b- 
thc  l>est  claim  to  be  considered  the  unicorn  of  Scripture.  '. 
Hebrew  name  carries  in  its  signification  merely  a  reference  t.. 
that  loftiness  by  which  it  was  distinguished,  without  any 
other  indication  of  its  nature  or  appearances.  Jn  the  earliest 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  another  language,  it  was  called 
the  Unicorn,  or  the  one-horned  animal.  Under  this  name, 
the  ancients  have  described  a  very  peculiar  beast.  It  is 
represented  as  having  the  legs  and  body  of  a  deer,  with  the 
head,  mane,  and  tail  of  a  horse,  armed  with  a  single  straight 
horn  from  the  middle  of  its  forehead,  and  presenting  altogether 
a  form  and  appearance  of  DO  common  elegance.  But  travel- 
lers have  not  been  able  to  find,  in  later  times,  any  animal  of 
this  sort  in  eastern  countries.  Animals  with  only  one  horn 
have  indeed  been  discovered,  but  none  of  them  suit  the  de- 
scription of  the  ancient  unicorn  Many  learned  commentators, 
however,  have  been  of  opinion  that  the  Rhinoceros  is  intended 


HIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIKri.  58 

by  the  unicorn;  to  which  the  principal  objection  is,  that  this- 
nimal  is  now  only  found  in  countries  very  remote  from  Judea. 
The  cow,  the  deer,  the  bear,  the  leopard,  the  fox,  &c.,  are 
too  well  known  to  need  any  description  :  but  it  deserves  to  DC 
noticed,  that  most  learned  men  are  now  of  opinion  that  the  ani- 
mals  caught  in  such  numbers  by  Samson  were  not  of  the  spe- 
cies of  our  fox,  but  the  jackal,  of  which  the  number  is  very 
great  in  the  east,  and  who  are  accustomed  to  go  in  large  com- 
panies. 

BIRDS. 

We  must  also  omit  a  particular  description  of  the  birds. 
Among  these,  we  find  mentioned  in  Scripture  the  Eagle,  ex- 
celling all  the  rest  in  strength,  boldness,  and  violence;  dwell- 
ing alone  in  the  wilderness  and  on  the  mountain  top,  amid  the 
highest  branches  of  the  cedar,  or  soaring,  with  rapid  wing,  far 
above  the  clouds  of  heaven,  where  no  bird  can  follow,  (Obacl.  4, 
Jer.  xlix.  16,  Job  xxxix.  27 — 30;)  the  Ostrich,  largest  of 
the  winged  race,  delighting  in  the  sandy  desert,  where  she  leav- 
eth  her  eggs  in  the  earth,  and  warnvth  tlwm  in  the  sand,f(/r- 
yettiny  that  the  foot  nun/  crush  them;  and  over  which,  with 
outspread,  quivering  wing,  she  runs  with  speed  that  scarcely 
seems  to  touch  the  ground,  scorning  the  horse  and  his  rider, 
(Job  xxxix.  13 — 18,  Lam.  iv.  3 ;)  the  Stork,  whose  house  it 
IH  the  fir-trees,  (Ps.  civ.  17,)  or  in  the  summit  of  some  ruined 
tower,  and  who  knoweth  her  appointed  time  to  move  toward 
the  north  or  the  south,  as  the  seasons  change,  (Jer.  viii.  7;) 
the  Pelican,  inhabiting  the  marshy  places  and  solitary  lakes, 
(Ps.  cii.  6;)  the  Raven,  with  feathers  beautifully  black,  whose 
mournful  croak  is  heard  from  deserted  ruins,  and  who  hovers 
near  the  field  of  battle,  to  feed  on  the  bodies  of  the  slain, 
(Song  v.  11,  Isa.  xxxiv.  11,  Ps.  cxlvii.  9,  Luke  xii.  24;)  the 
Owl,  fond  also  of  dreary  places  and  scenes  of  desolation,  (Isa. 
xxxiv.  11,  Ps.  cii.  6;)  the  Hawk,  daring,  swift,  and  delight- 
ing in  blood;  the  harmless,  fair-eyed  Dove,  (Song  i.  15, 
v.  12;)  the  noisy,  wandering  Crane,  (Jer.  viii.  7;)  the  Swal* 
low;  the  Partri(l<j<  ;  ;ind  the  Sparrow.'  The  Peacock  seems 
to  have  been  brought  into  Palestine  first,  in  the  reign  of  Solo- 
mon; probably  from  Persia.  (1  Kings  x.  22.) 

WATER  ANIMALS. 

Only  two  or  three  particular  kinds  of  water  animals  are  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible.  The  What*'  is  named  several  times.  IL 
the  book  of  Job  is  described  another  great  water  animal,  called 
Leviathan.  (Job  xli.)  Many  have  supposed  that  the 


M  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

»,i,  intended  by  this  name,  but  the  description  of  Job  suiu  iht» 
crocodile  much  better;  yet  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  huge 
>f  several  kinds  are  spoken  of,  iu  different  places 
of  tin-  Scriptures,  under  this  term.  For  we  read  in  Isaiah 
(\x\ii.  1  »  that  the  Lord  "shall  punish  leviathan  the  piercing 
«T;P  t  -.ml)  leviathan  that  crooked  serpent." 

/>'  //.  ninth. —-This  is  very  commonly  considered  to  be  another 
name  t'n  the  elephant;  but  there  seems  much  better  reason  to 
nipp  •*•  that  it  means  the  Hippfypotnmut,  or  River  Horse,  which 
is  an  amphibious  animal,  but  spends  much  of  his  time  among 
the  reeds  and  fens  <>f  the  Nile,  where  the  trees  cover  him  with 
their  shadow,  and  the  willows  of  the  brook  compass  hirp  about, 
according  to  the  description  in  Job,  (xl.  15 — 24.) 

REPTILES. 

Among  animals  of  the  reptile  kind,  the  Dragon  is  frequently 
named  in  Scripture.  Under  this  name,  however,  different  kinda 
of  monsters,  belonging  either  to  the  dry  land  or  the  deep,  see-.n 
to  be  understood.  Properly,  the  dragon  is  the  nan?e  of  a  ser- 
I>.  nt  of  prodigious  size.  It  is  described  by  the  ancients  as 
bang  very  frightful  in  its  appearance,  covered  with  scales  of  a 
bright  yellow  or  red  colour,  with  a  shining  crest,  and  a  swelling 
on  its  head,  that  looks  like  burning  coal.  A  huge  red  serpent, 
of  a  kind  somewhat  answering  to  this  description,  is  still  found  in 
the  east.  It  seizes  large  animals,  like  the  stag  or  the  ox,  breaks 
their  bones  all  to  pieces  by  crushing  them  with  the  folds  of  its 
body  against  a  tree,  and  swallows  them  down  whole.  It  some- 
times raises  itself  up,  upright  upon  its  tail,  and  with  amazing 
strength  attacks  its  prey  in  this  attitude;  at  other  times,  ite 
tail  is  employed  in  the  work  of  destruction,  playing  around  with 
a  force  that  is  dreadful.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  Great 
red  />r>i;/im,  which  John  saw  in  vision:  its  "tail  drew  the 
third  part  of  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  did  cast  them  to  the 
earth;"  and  it  "«AW  before  the  woman,  to  devour  her  child 
M  soon  as  it  was  born."  This,  we  are  informed,  was  "  that  old 
Sf-rprnl,  called  the  Devil,  and  Satan,  who  deceiveth  the  whole 
world,"  as  long  since  he  deceived  our  first  mother,  Eve.  (Rev. 
xii.  3 — 9.)  The  silent  and  desolate  wilderness  is  represented 
as  the  chosen  haunt  of  the  dragon.  Hence,  the  prophets,  in 
foretelling  the  utter  ruin  of  great  cities,  declare,  among  other 
frightful  circumstances,  that  they  shall  become  the  habitation 
uf  dragon*.  (Isa  xiii.  22,  xxxiv.  13,  Jer.  ix.  11.)  In  such 
cues,  we  may  suppose  that  the  name  is  us**!  with  a  general 
n)r;iniii_'.  tn  HL'nilv  uil'l  reptiles  »(  different  sorts,  such  as  am 
f«»un-l  lurking  among  the  rubbish  of  ancient  ruins  The  crooo 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  56 

dile  i»  called  a  dragon ;  as  in  that  passage  where  Pharaoh  i.« 
likened  to  "  the  great  dragon  that  lieth  in  the  midst  of  bis- 
rivers,  which  hath  said,  My  river  is  mine  own ;  I  have  made  it 
for  myself."  (Ezek.  xxix.  3.)  The  river  intended  is  the  Nile, 
where  the  crocodile  abounds.  Drayons  of  the  sea  seem  to 
mean  various  great  monsters  dwelling  in  the  deep,  with  which 
men  are  little  acquainted,  and  so  have  commonly  only  an  in- 
definite notion  of  their  appearance,  suggested  by  imagination 
rather  than  by  accurate  knowledge. 

We  read  in  the  Bible  of  the  Fiery  Serpent.  It  was  found 
in  the  desert  of  Arabia,  when  the  Israelites  passed  through  it, 
on  their  way  to  Canaan.  They  were  called  fiery,  on  account 
of  their  flaming  colour,  which  was  represented  by  the  bright 
brazen  serpent  that  Moses  lifted  up,  to  be  looked  at  by  those 
who  were  bitten.  We  hear  again  of  flying  fiery  serpents. 
(Isa.  xxx.  6.)  What  we  are  to  understand  by  this  is  not  alto- 
gether clear.  There  is  found  at  the  present  day,  in  some  coun- 
tries, a  serpent  that  darts  with  great  rapidity  from  the  branches 
of  trees,  and  on  this  account  has  received  the  name  of  a  flying 
serpent,  which  some  have  imagined  to  be  the  same  that  is  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible.  Ancient  writers,  however,  have  described 
a  different  serpent  under  this  name,  having  a  short  body 
spotted  with  divers  colours,  and  furnished  with  wings  resem- 
bling those  of  a  bat,  which  they  tell  us  was  not  uncommon  in 
Arabia  and  some  other  regions  in  the  east.  Modern  travellers, 
it  is  true,  have  never  met  with  such  an  animal :  but  as  its  ex- 
istence in  earlier  times  is  asserted  by  most  respectable  authority, 
it  seems  probable  that  the  winged  serpent  of  Scripture  was  no 
other. 

The  Cockatrice  is  several  times  mentioned  in  Scripture,  as  a 
serpent  of  most  dangerous  kind.  It  could  not  be  charmed. 
(Jer.  viii.  17.)  The  Asp  is  another  serpent,  of  small  size, 
whose  poison  certainly  and  rapidly  produces  death,  throwing 
the  person  that  is  bitten  into  a  state  of  drowsiness  and  fatal 
bleep.  As  a  sign  of  the  great  blessings  of  Christ's  kingdom, 
about  to  fill  the  world  in  the  fast  days,  it  is  said  in  prophecy, 
among  other  things,  that  "  the  sucking  child  shall  play  on  the 
hole  of  the  asp,  and  the  weaned  child  shall  put  his  hand  upon 
the  cockatrice's  den."  (Isa.  xi.  8.)  Adder  is  a  name  given, 
in  the  English  translation  of  the  Bible,  to  more  than  one  kind 
of  venomous  snakes.  The  Viper  is  a  well  known,  deadly,  and 
malignant  serpent.  It  was  a  great  miracle,  when  Paul  shook 
off  su<*h  a  reptile  from  his  hand,  and  felt  no  harm  The  Phari- 
loes,  on  account  of  their  wickedness  and  malice,  w<w  called  br 
John,  "a  generation  of  vipers."  (Matt.  iii.  7.) 


56  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


The  Xfftrjiioit  is  sometimes  joined  with  the  serpent,  on  ac- 
count of  its  poison.  It  is  a  most  loathsome  animal,  resembling, 
in  some  m>  :i.-un-,  ;i  lobster  or  crab.  Each  scorpion  has  six  or 
eight  eyes.  It  has,  moreover,  a  tail,  and  in  the  end  of  it,  a 
sting,  which  it  is  ready  to  use  upon  every  object  that  coiuuf 
within  its  reach,  darting  a  cold  and  dangerous  poison  into  the 
wound.  The  little  creature  is  extremely  passionate  and  inis- 
i-liievous,  and  exceedingly  troublesome  to  man  and  beast  in 
those  countries  where  it  abounds.  (Deut.  viii.  15,  Rev.  ix.  5, 
6,  10.)  What  father  would  give  such  an  animal  to  a  child, 
when  it  asked  him  for  an  egg?  (Luke  xi.  12;)  and  what  a 
security  did  Christ  throw  around  nis  disciples,  when  he  gave 
them  power  even  "  to  tread  upon  serpents  and  scorpions,"  with- 
out harm  !  (Luke  x.  19.) 

INSECTS. 

The  Bee  was  very  common  anciently,  as  it  still  is,  in  the 
east.  Palestine  is  represented  as  abounding  with  honey.  Great 
quantities  of  it  were  laid  up  by  wild  bees  in  the  crevices  of  the 
rocks,  and  in  the  hollows  of  decayed  trees.  The  Hnrnrt  is  aUo 
spoken  of  in  the  Bible.  God  threatened  to  send  it  against  the 
enemies  of  the  Israelites  in  Canaan  to  drive  them  out  of  the 
land.  (Ex.  xxiii.  28,  Deut.  vii.  20.)  From  Joshua  xxiv.  12, 
we  learn  that  the  two  kings  of  the  Amorites  were  actually 
driven  out  of  their  place  by  this  means.  We  have  mention 
made  also  of  the  Ant,  the  Beetle,  the  Grasshopper,  &c.  /Y/Vs 
of  various  sorts,  some  of  which  are  not  known  at  all  in  oth  r 
countries,  have  always  been  troublesome  in  eastern  region-. 
Some  of  them  are  very  large,  and  exceedingly  vexatious  and 
tormenting  to  man  and  beast. 

The  Locust.  —  There  is  one  insect,  out  of  the  many  kinds 
which  abound  in  the  east,  which  deserves  a  more  particular 
notice.  The  locust  in  those  countries  is  very  large,  about  half 
a  foot  long,  and  as  thick  as  a  man's  finger.  It  has  a  head,  in 
form  resembling  that  of  a  horse,  furnished  with  strong,  sharp 
teeth.  With  these,  it  feeds  upon  every  thing  that  is  green,  and 
by  reason  of  its  numbers,  often  becomes  one  of  the  most  dread- 
ful plagues  which  a  country  can  suffer.  Immense  armies  of 
'hern,  reaching  several  miles  in  length  and  breadth,  are  seen 
flying  through  the  air,  so  thick  that  they  darken  the  light  of 
the  sun,  like  a  heavy,  black  cloud.  The  sound  of  their  wings  is 
terrible.  When  they  light  upon  the  ground,  they  cover  it  over 
completely  They  then  march  forward,  in  regular  order,  to- 
ward the  north,  passing  in  a  straight  line  over  every  thing  that 
coiiio  in  their  way,  devouring  the  whole  herbage  of  the  field 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  57 

and  stripping  every  tree  of  its  l.-aves  and  tender  bark.  Nothing 
can  stop  them  :  ditches  may  be  dug,  but  they  are  directly  filled 
up  with  their  bodies ;  fires  may  be  kindled,  but  they  move  right 
into  them,  and  by  their  numbers  soon  put  them  out,  with  little 
loss  to  their  huge  army.  The  prophet  Joel  descril>es  them  in 
the  second  chapter  of  his  book,  as  a  picture  of  the  terrible 
Assyrian  army,  which  God  was  about  soon  to  bring  upon  the 
la.nl :  "The  land,"  says  he,  "is  as  the  garden  of  .Men  before 
them,  and  behind  them  a  desolate  wilderness  !"  It  is  dreadful 
enough  to  be  visited  with  one  army  of  these  destructive  insects ; 
but  this  is  but  a  part  of  the  evil :  the  first  swarm  is  quickly 
followed  by  a  second,  and  a  third  and  sometimes  a  fourth, 
which  sweep  new  tracks  of  desolation  through  the  land,  till  it 
is  laid  utterly  waste,  as  if  it  had  been  ravaged  with  fire.  At 
length,  they  are  borne  by  the  wind  into  the  sea,  where  they 
speedily  perish ;  but  a  new  plague  frequently  follows.  Their 
innumerable  carcasses  are  driven  back  by  the  waves  upon  the 
shore,  where  they  breed  a  dreadful  putrid  stench,  that  renders 
the  air,  for  a  great  distance,  extremely  unwholesome,  and  some- 
times even  gives  rise  to  the  Pestilence.  So  awful  was  the 
plague  which  God  brought  upon  Egypt,  when  he  bid  the  east 
wind  blow  from  Arabia,  the  birth-place  of  locusts,  to  bear  their 
countless  host  upon  that  guilty  land.  (Ex.  x.  14.)  The  Mo- 
hammedan armies  were  represented  in  vision  to  the  apostle 
John,  under  a  swarm  of  locusts.  (Rev.  ix.)  These  animals 
are  frequently  used  for  food  ;  salted  and  dried  in  the  smoke, 
or  boiled  with  a  little  oil  or  butter,  or  toasted  before  the  fire. 
Some  people  live  on  them  nearly  altogether.  Such  wag  the 
plain  fare  of  John  the  Baptist  in  the  wilderness :  "  His  meat 
was  locusts  and  wild  honey."  (Matt.  iii.  4.) 


CHAPTER  m. 
DWELLINGf   AND   HOUSEHOLD  ACCOMMODATIONS. 

SECTION  I. 
DWELLINGS. 

IN  eastern  countries,  men  dwell  either  in  tents  or  in  house*. 
l'li">e  who  lead  a  wandering  life,  as  the  Arabs,  prefer  the  tent, 
as  it  may  conveniently  be  carried  with  them  from  place  *.o 
place;  and  in  that  warm  climate,  possesses,  as  a  habitation,  aij 


58  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

the  advantages  which  their  rude  and  simple  manners  requirb 
In  very  early  tim-'s,  it  seema  to  have  been  altogether  the  .unst 
common  kind  of  dwelling.  The  life  of  a  shepherd,  roving 
and  unsettled,  has  always  been  connected  with  "living  in  a 
tent."  Jabal  was  the  "  father  of  such  as  dwell  in  tents  and 
have  cattle,"  before  the  flood;  and  after  it,  we  find  Noah  in 
the  same  sort  of  dwelling,  as  at  a  later  period,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob. 

Truts  are  formed  by  setting  up  throe,  seven,  or  nine  poles 
as  they  are  smaller  or  larger,  and  spreading  over  them  a  great 
covering  of  cloth  or  skin.  If  more  than  three  poles  are  u.M-d, 
the  three  longest  are  placed  in  a  row  in  the  middle,  and  the 
others  on  each  side;  if  there  be  only  three,  they  are  placed  in 
-  single  row;  then  the  covering  is  drawn  over  them,  and 
made  to  slope  outward,  like  the  roof  of  a  house,  towards  the 
ground,  by  means  of  cords,  which  are  fastened  down  to  the  earth 
with  wooden  pins  or  stakes.  (Isa.  liv.  2.)  The  covering  is 
generally  made  of  that  strong  black  cloth  which  is  formed  of 
goat's  hair.  When  a  number  of  them  are  seen  at  a  distance, 
pitched  together,  as  they  frequently  are,  in  a  circle  upon  smiie 
hill,  they  have  a  very  beautiful  appearance :  "  I  am  black," 
says  the  spouse,  "  but  comely  as  the  tents  of  Kedar."  ( Sun^  i 
5.)  The  larger  kind  are  divided  by  curtains  into  two  or  three 
rooms.  The  bottom  of  the  tent  is  covered  with  mats,  and 
sometimes  carpets,  on  which  those  who  live  in  them  sit.  A 
small  hole,  dug  in  the  middle,  serves  as  a  fireplace  for  cook- 
ing; and  a  few  vessels  of  shell  or  brass,  with  some  goat-skin 
bottles  and  a  hand-mill  for  grinding  grain,  make  up  the  sim- 
ple furniture  of  the  eastern  shepherd's  slender  dwelling.  The 
tents  of  the  great  and  wealthy,  however,  are  sometimes  very 
(splendid,  and  supplied  with  richer  accommodations. 

Houses  rise,  as  men  give  up  a  wandering  life,  and  fix  them- 
selves on  one  spot,  to  till  the  ground  or  to  attend  to  different 
kinds  of  art  and  science.  They  had  learned  to  build  them 
long  before  the  flood,  as  we  may  clearly  conclude  from  the 
building  of  the  ark.  The  Jews,  after  their  settlement  in  Ca- 
naan, being  chiefly  employed  in  husbandry,  dwelt  generally 
'n  houses.  Their  houses,  however,  were  very  different,  in  seve- 
ral respects,  from  oun ;  and  to  understand  some  passages  of 
the  Bible,  we  must  be  acquainted  with  this  difference.  The  same 
general  plan  of  building  seems  to  have  continued  from  the 
earliest  times  to  the  present  day,  in  the  eastern  countries. 
Let  us  attend,  then,  to  the  account  which  travellers  have  given 
as  of  a  house,  as  it  is  common  there ;  taking  for  an  example 
*ne  of  the  larger  and  more  respectable  sort. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  50 

The  outside  of  the  house  presents  a  square  figure,  with  a 
Qat  top  and  dull  appearance,  having  only  a  single  door  in  the 
front  side,  and  one  latticed  window  looking  from  the  upper 
part.  On  opening  this  door,  we  enter  into  a  square  n»oin  of 
moderate  size,  which  is  called  the  Porch.  On  one  side  of  it  is 
fixed  a  seat  for  the  accommodation  of  strangers ;  few  persons 
being  allowed  to  get  any  farther  into  the  house,  except  on 
great  festival  occasions.  Going  straight  forward  through  the 
porch,  we  open  a  second  door,  which  brings  us  into  a  large 
open  square,  right  in  the  centre  of  the  building,  called  the 
Court.  When  we  raise  our  eyes  upward,  in  this  place,  we 
find  that  there  is  nothing  over  our  heads  but  the  sky  itself : 
the  only  covering  which  it  ever  has  is  a  large  veil  or  curtain, 
sometimes  drawn  over  it  by  cords,  from  one  side  to  the  other, 
to  keep  off  the  sun,  when  a  large  company  is  to  be  received. 
When  it  rains,  the  water  falls  upon  the  pavement  below,  which 
is  made  of  marble  or  some  other  solid  material,  and  is  carried 
out  by  a  pipe  or  trough  through  the  building.  It  is  consi- 


Interior  court  of  an  Eastern  hoiue. 

dered  a  great  ornanvnt  and  luxury  to  have  a  fountain  in  the 
middle  of  this  pavement,  constantly  pouring  /orth  its  refresh- 
ing stream.  Around  the  court,  on  its  four  sides,  are  seen 
large  windows  and  handsome  doors,  opening  into  it  from  all 
the  rooms  of  the  house.  When  you  come  out  of  these  rooms, 
nowever,  you  do  not  generally  step  at  once  upon  the  pave- 
ment, but  upon  a  covered  walk,  or  porch  with  pillars,  (such  a« 


60  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

we  often  *ee  in  front  of  our  houses,)  which  goes  along  each  sid< 
of  the  square.  If  the  house  has  more  than  one  story,  the 
door?  of  the  upper  chambers  open  out  upon  a  gallery  or  l»al- 
oony,  that  runs  round  above  this  porch,  and  has,  in  front  of 
it,  toward  the  centre  of  the  court,  a  balustrade,  or  some  kind 
of  railing,  to  keep  people  from  falling  down  upon  the  hard 
pavement  below.  A  person,  in  going  from  one  room  to  an- 
other, must  always  come  out  of  the  first  room  and  go  into  the 
second  by  the  doors  that  open  into  the  court ;  for  there  is  no 
door  or  passage  leading  directly  from  one  to  the  other,  in  the 
inside.  On  great  occasions,  such  as  a  marriage,  company  is 
always  received  in  the  court. 

From  the  square  room,  called  the  Porch,  into  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  front  door  on  the  outside  opens,  a  flight  of 
stairs  rises  to  the  upper  story,  and  so  on  to  the  roof  of  the 
house.  The  roof  is  flat,  covered  over  with  polid  earth,  or  a 
kind  of  plaster,  made  of  coals,  ashes,  stones,  and  other  sub- 
stances, well  pounded  together.  It  is  surrounded  on  the  out- 
side with  a  low  wall,  and  on  the  Insi.'.r,  round  the  court,  with 
a  breastwork,  or  railing,  like  the  balustrade  of  the  balcony,  to 
prevent  persons  from  falling  either  way.  (Deut.  xxii.  8.)  On 
such  roofs,  a  little  grass  will  sometimes  spring  up  ;  but  it  soon 
withers  under  the  heat  of  the  sun.  (Ps.  cxxix.  6 — 8.)  The 
roof  has  always  been  much  used  as  a  place  of  agreeable  re- 
tirement. There  it  is  common  to  walk  in  the  evening,  to  en- 
joy the  cool  breeze,  and  there,  in  summer,  persons  often  sleep 
under  the  broad  arch  of  heaven.  On  such  a  roof,  Rahab  con- 
cealed the  spies  with  stalks  of  flax,  (Josh.  ii.  6  ;)  Samuel 
talked  with  Saul,  (1  Sam.  ix.  25  ;)  David  walked  at  even- 
tide, (2  Sara.  xi.  2 ;)  and  Peter  employed  himself  in  medita- 
tion and  prayer.  (Acts  x.  9.)  In  cities,  the  roof  of  one 
house  i.s  joined  to  another,  so  that  a  person  may  pass  along 
a  whole  street,  sometimes,  without  coming  down.  When, 
therefore,  our  Saviour  said,  "  Let  him  that  is  on  the  house- 
top not  go  down  into  the  house,  neither  enter  therein,  to  take 
any  thing  out  of  his  house,"  (Mark  xiii.  15,)  he  might  mean, 
that  he  should  pass  right  along  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  and 
get  to  the  end  of  the  s  reet,  and  so  out  of  the  city,  by  the  short- 
est possible  way.  More  probably,  however,  he  meant  that  he 
should  go  directly  down  the  stairs  into  the  Porch,  and  so 
out  by  the  street  door,  without  turning  backward  through  the 
Court,  to  any  of  the  chambers,  lest  even  so  small  a  delay 
sh'iuld  (  P-I  li;in  his  lit'-.  It  seems  to  have  been  by  taking 
•rlvanta^r  ..f  tli].-  <  :  ,-,•  c..iiii«-«-ti.»u  of  several  roofs,  that  the 
friends  of  the  man  who  was  sick  with  the  palsy  broaght  him 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


61 


into  th<;  presence  of  Jesus.  (Mark  ii.  3,  4.)  While  the  Re- 
:lrciiior  was  preaching  in  the  court  of  a  certain  house  in  Caper- 
naum, they  came,  carrying  the  sufferer  upon  a  bed ;  but  the 
crowd  was  so  great  in  the  house  and  about  the  door,  that  they 
found  it  impossible  to  come  near  him.  They  then  took  the  man 
up,  through  some  neighbouring  house,  to  the  top,  and  thu.s 
brought  him  along  till  they  stood  by  the  inner  breastwork  <>f 
the  roof,  just  over  the  place  where  our  Saviour  was.  There 
they  uncovered  the  roof;  that  is,  took  away  the  covering  of 
cloth  that  was  spread  over  the  court  to  keep  off  the  sun,  and 
broke  up,  or  tore  away,  some  part  of  the  balustrade ;  and  so, 
with  cords,  let  down  the  bed,  whereon  the  sick  man  lay,  into 
the  midst,  right  before  Him  who  was  able  to  heal.  (Luke  v.  19.) 

The  rich  sometimes  have  two  houses;  one  for  summer,  and 
another  for  winter.  (Amos  iii.  15.)  The  former  faces  the  north, 
to  be  cool;  the  latter  opens  toward  the  south,  to  be  warm. 
The  rooms  are  generally  large ;  those  in  the  upper  story  being 
fitted  up  with  more  elegance  than  those  below.  The  back 
part  of  the  house  is  occupied  by  the  women.  An  Upper 
Chamber,  just  over  the  porch,  in 
the  front  part  of  the  building,  was 
generally,  among  the  Jews,  set 
apart  to  lodge  strangers.  (1  Kings 
xvii.  19.)  When  the  house  had 
only  one  story,  this  room  seems  to 
have  been  raised  above  it,  to  the 
height  of  a  second,  with  a  door  open- 
ing out  upon  the  roof.  (2  Kings 
iv.  10.)  When  fire  was  used,  the 
smoke  had  no  chimney  to  carry  it 
away ;  it  went  out  by  a  hole  in  the 
wall,  though  it  is  called  a  cl  imney 
in  one  place.  ("Hos.  xiii.  3.)  Win- 
dows had  no  glass,  but  merely  lattice-work. 

Houses,  in  earlier  times,  seem  to  have  been  commonly  only 
one  story  high,  in  Palestine ;  but  long  before  the  time  of  Christ, 
many  of  them  were  much  higher,  and  very  splendid;  ceiled 
with  cedar,  painted  with  vermilion,  and  richly  adorned  with 
ivory,  gold,  and  precious  gems.  (Jer.  xxii.  14,  1  Kings  xxii. 
39  )  Stone  was  used  for  building  before  the  time  of  Moses, 
(Isev.  xiv.  40,)  and  always  continued  common.  Timber,  too, 
was  much  employed.  (Isa.  ix.  10.)  The  bricks  mentioned  in 
several  places,  were  square  pieces  of  clay,  hardened  merely  by 
the  heat  of  the  sun.  The  walls  of  many  houses  of  the  more 
eomuion  sort  were  made  of  this  material,  which  could  seldom  tort 

f. 


62  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

r  than  the  life  of  one  man.  As  it  was  comparatively  soft, 
•  not  hard  to  dig  a  hole  right  through  it.  (Mutt.  vi.  19, 
I'.'.i'k.  xii.  5  )  Serpents,  also,  would  occasionally  find  a  hiding- 
|il;ice  in  it.  (Amos  v.  19.)  Heavy  rains  injure  such  walls  vory 
much  ;  and  if  they  were  not  well  secured  about  the  foundation, 
sometimes  swept  them  utterly  away :  to  such  a  house  our  Sa- 
viour seems  to  refer:  "The  rain  descended,  and  the  flood* 
came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house;  aria  it 
ft-11  :  and  great  was  the  fall  of  it."  (Matt.  vii.  27.)  Such  fniil 
houses  are  still  common  in  the  east.  So  many  of  them  are  in 
the  city  of  Damascus,  that  when  a  violent  rain  falls,  the  street/1 
become  like  a  quagmire,  with  the  clay  that  is  washed  from  thr 
walls. 

In  eastern  cities,  the  houses  are  generally  built  with  very 
narrow  streets  between  them ;  not  more  than  four  or  five  feet 
wide.  This  is  to  have  them,  almost  all  the  time,  completely 
shaded  from  the  oppressive  power  of  the  sun.  In  ancient  times, 
however,  as  we  read,  chariots  were  driven  through  them ;  so 
that  some  of  them  must  have  been  much  wider.  The  Gatct 
were  important  places.  A  considerable  space  was  left  unoccu- 
pied about  them,  where  markets  were  held  and  goods  of  all  sorts 
exposed  to  sale,  either  in  tents  or  under  the  open  sky.  (2  Kings 
vii.  18.)  Here,  also,  was  the  seat  of  justice,  and  the  common 
place  of  resort,  where  all  matters  of  law  were  settled,  and  pub- 
lic business  of  every  kind  transacted.  When  Abraham  bought 
a  field  of  tie  sons  of  Heth,  thi  bargain  was  made  "  at  the  gate 
of  the  city."  (Gen.  xxiii.  10,  18.  See  also  Gen.  xxxiv.  20,  Ruth 
iv.  1  — 10.)  Hence,  the  expressions,  u  to  be  crushed  in  the 
gate,"  that  is,  to  be  utterly  condemned  in  judgment,  (Job  v. 
4 ;)  "to  open  the  mouth  in  the  gate,  to  reprove  in  the  gate,  to 
turn  aside  judgment  in  the  gate,"  &c.  The  gates  were  made 
very  strong ;  sometimes  of  iron  or  brass.  Gates,  then,  may  be 
used  to  signify  both  strength  and  wisdom ;  as  when  it  is  said, 
"  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against"  the  church.  (Matt, 
xvi.  18.) 


SECTION  11. 
OF    FURNITURE. 

LET  us  next  consider  the  furniture  of  an  eastern  house.  Th« 
floors  of  the  rooms  are  covered  with  mats  or  carpets.  In  a  box 
txwide  the  wall,  are  kept  some  thick,  coarse  mattresses,  which 
it  night  are  thrown  upon  the  floor  and  slept  upon;  the  poorei 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQU.riES.  6& 

people  use  skins.  Bedsteads  and  chairs  are  not  seen.  It  is  an 
easy  matter  to  carry  such  a  bed  ;  as  our  Saviour  commanded  the 
sick  man :  "  Take  up  thy  bed  and  walk."  On  two  or  three 
sides  of  the  room,  there  is  sometimes  seen  a  raised  place,  about 
thn»e  feet  broad  and  a  foot  high,  running  all  along  the  wall. 
On  this  lies,  from  one  end  to  the  other,  a  stuffed  cushion  :  and 
here  the  people  sit  cross-legged,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of 
our  tailors  when  at  work,  leaning  their  backs  against  bolsters 
that  are  fixed  up  along  the  wall.  The  seat  at  the  corner  is  the 
mobt  comfortable  and  th«:  most  honourable.  This  raised  place, 
on  which  it  has  always  been  usual  to  lie,  as  well  as  sit,  (2  Kings 
xx.  2,)  is  called  sometimes  in  Scripture,  a  bed,  (Amos  iii.  12 ;) 
and  sometimes,  under  the  same  name,  appears  to  be  meant  a 
moveable  settee,  or  sofa,  of  the  same  height  and  breadth,  fur- 
nished with  the  same  conveniences,  and  used  in  the  same  way, 
for  sitting  or  lying.  Such  were  the  "  beds  of  ivory,"  (Amos 
vi.  4 ;)  and  something  of  the  sort,  perhaps,  was  the  "  iron  bed- 
stead" of  Og,  king  of  Bashan.  (Deut.  iii.  11.) 

The  bottom  of  a  room  in  a  Jewish  house  was  always  perfectly 
clean.  Nobody  dreamed  of  stepping  into  it  with  a  sandal  or 
shoe  on  his  foot,  and  tobacco  was  utterly  unknown.  Hence,  it 
was  very  seldom  necessary  to  scrub  or  sweep.  (Matt.  xii.  44, 
Luke  xv.  8.) 

A  Lamp,  fed  with  olive  oil,  and  supported  on  a  large  candle- 
stick, seems  to  have  been  kept  burning  constantly  through  the 
night,  in  the  room  where  the  family  slept. 
Such  is  still  the  custom  in  Egypt,  even 
among  the  poorest  people.  Hence,  to 
the  ear  of  a  Jew,  the  phrase,  to  put  out 
a  man's  liyht,  employed  to  signify  ca- 
lamity, was  more  full  of  meaning  than 
we  are  apt  to  conceive.  (Job  xxi.  17, 
xviii.  5,  6.)  "Whoso  curseth  his  fa- 
ther or  his  mother,  his  lamp  shall  be 
put  out  in  obscure  darkness."  (Prov. 
xx.  20.) 

Pots,  plates,  and  cups  of  different 
kinds,  sometimes  pretty  costly,  were 
found  in  the  Jewish  dwelling.  One  jf 
the  most  useful  articles  was  the  goat-skin 
bottle.  It  is  made  by  stripping  off  the 
skin  of  a  gout,  or  kid,  from  the  neck  downward,  without  lipping 
•t  j  only  cutting  off  the  legs  and  the  tail.  The  hole  left  by  one 
/  the  tore  legs  is  left  to  answer  the  purposes  of  a  spout,  while 
JIB  rest  ar*  tightly  sewed  up.  It  is  filled  by  the  neck,  which  is 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

afterwards  tied  like  the  mouth  of  a  dock 
Into  this  vessel  is  put  water,  milk,  and 
witu-,  which  arc  kept  more  fresh  and 
sweet  this  way,  than  they  curt  be  in  any 
other.  They  are  used,  indeed,  to  carry 
almost  every  kind  of  provision.  When 
they  get  old,  they  often  break,  and  often 
are  mended  in  different  ways.  Such 
were  the  "  wine  bottles,  old,  and  rent, 
and  bound  up,"  of  the  cunning  Gibeon- 
ites,  (Josh.  ix.  4;)  and  such  bottles  our 
Saviour  had  ;n  view,  when  he  said, 
"  Neither  do  men  put  new  wine  into  old 
bottles ;  else  the  bottles  break,  and  the  wine  runneth  out,  and 
the  bottles  perish."  (Matt.  ix.  17.)  The  Arabs  still  use  these 
bottles,  and  sometimes  form  a  vessel  nearly  as  large  as  a  hogs- 
head, out  of  an  ox-skin.  Two  of  these  last,  filled  with  water, 
and  slung  over  the  back  of  a  camel,  are  of  great  value  to  a 
company  travelling  through  the  desert. 

The  most  ancient  table  for  eating,  probably  resembled  that 
which  is  still  common  in  the  east;  a  circular  piece  of  leather 
spread  upon  the  floor,  around  which  those  who  ate  sat  with 
legs  bent  and  crossed,  on  cushions  or  small  carpets.  So  the 
brethren  of  Joseph  sat  before  him,  when  they  dined  with  him 
in  Egypt.  (Gen.  xliii.  33.)  It  seems  to  have  been  common, 
in  very  early  times,  to  have  separate  small  tables,  placed  in  * 
circle  at  the  social  meal,  one  before  each  person,  as  we  gm 
each  a  separate  plate.  Every  one  had  his  i>'>rti<>n  set  on  hit 
own  table.  After  the  captivity,  the  Persian  custom  of  lying 
at  meals,  which  came  into  use  also  among  the  Greeks  ana 
Romans,  grew  fashionable  in  Palestine.  This  required  a  new 
kind  of  table.  It  was  made  up  of  three  narrow  tables,  raised, 
like  oure.  from  the  ground,  and  placed  together  PO  as  to  form 
a  square,  with  a  clear  space  in  the  middle,  and  one  end  quite 
open.  Around  these,  three  tables,  on  the  outside,  were  placed 
three  couches  or  beds,  reaching  far  enough  back  to  allow  a 
man's  body  to  be  stretched  nearly  straight  across.  On  these, 
the  guests  lay,  in  a  slanting  position,  one  before  the  other, 
each  leaning  upon  his  left  arm,  with  his  face  turned  toward 
the  table.  In  this  way,  the  head  of  one  was  placed  before  th* 
bosom  of  another,  so  that,  if  he  turned  to  speak  with  him.  he 
naturally  leaned  up  in  it;  thus  John  leaned  on  the  Saviour'? 
I.  •  'in  at  -upper.  (John  xiii.  23.)  The  fourth  side  was  left 
char,  fur  the  servants  to  pass  into  the  open  space  in  the  middle 
»nd  bring  to  any  part  of  the  table  whatever  might  be  wanted. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 


65 


On  one  of  these  table-couches,  or  beds,  Queen  Esther  was  lean- 
ing, when  Haman  fell  before  her  to  supplicate  mercy.  (Esth. 
vii.  8.)  On  such  a  couch,  also,  the  Redeemer  lay  at  meat  in 
the  Pharisee's  house,  when  there  came  a  woman  "that  was  a 
sinner,  and  stood  at  his  feet  behind  him,  weeping,  and  began 
to  wash  his  feet  with  tears,  and  did  wipe  them  with  the  hairs 
of  her  head,  and  kissed  his  feet,  and  anointed  them  with 
ointment."  (Luke  vii.  36 — 38.)  She  stood  on  the  floor,  by 
the  outside  of  the  high  couch.  In  a  similar  manner,  our  Lord 
approached  the  feet  of  his  disciples,  when  he  rose  from  sup- 
per, took  a  towel,  with  a  basin  of  water,  and  began  to  wash 
them  and  wipe  them,  one  after  another,  as  they  lay  round  the 
table.  (John  xiii.  4 — 12.)  Wherever,  in  the  New  Testament, 
we  read  of  sitting  at  meat,  we  are  to  remember  that  it  means  no 
other  position  than  this  of  stretching  out  the  body  at  full 
length,  with  the  head  and  shoulders  raised  upon  the  left  arm. 

A  most  indispensable  article  in  every 
house  was  the  Mill.  We  read  of  fine 
meal  in  the  time  of  Abraham  ;  so,  be- 
fore his  age,  the  mill  must  have  been 
well  known.  It  was  made  of  two  cir- 
cular stones,  about  the  size  of  our  com- 
mon grindstones,  placed  one  above  the 
other.  The  lower  one  was  fixed  so  as 
not  to  move,  and  had  a  little  rise  to- 
ward the  centre,  on  its  upper 
part ;  the  upper  one  was 
hollowed  out  on  its  lower 
side,  to  fit  this  rise,  and  had 
a  wooden  handle  fixed  above, 
to  turn  it  round,  with  a  hole 
through  the  middle  to  receive 
ilic  grain.  This  mill  was 
used  day  after  day,  as  regu- 
larly as  our  coffeemill ;  for 
as  bread  in  that  country  will 
continue  good  only  a  short 
time,  it  became  the  universal  custom  to  grind  fresh  flour  and 
bake  every  day,  except  the  Sabbath.  It  was  the  business  of  maid 
servants  to  grind,  and  so  considered  a  degrading  employment 
fora  man,  (Judg.  xvi.  21,)  or  for  a  lady  of  rank.  (Isa.  xlvii.  2.) 
Sometimes  one  turned  the  mill  alone :  but  frequently  two 
were  employed  together  to  make  the  work  lighter.  In  the 
latter  case,  they  sate  one  on  each  side,  thrusting  the  handle 
round  continually  from  one  to  the  other.  Thus  our  Saviou? 


flfi  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

sjx-aks  of  "two  women  grinding  at  the  mill."  (Matt,  xxiv  41  ) 
\g  tlif  mill  was  so  e.vv'ntial  to  every  family,  it  was  forbidden 
to  take  me  nether  or  the  upper  stone  for  a  pledge.  (Deut. 
xxiv.  6.)  It,  in  the  days  of  her  glory,  we  had  walked  along 
tin-  street*  i'f  Jerusalem  about  the  twilight  of  evening,  or  the 
dawn  of  morning,  when  the  noise  of  grinding  came  upon  the 
car  from  every  quarter,  we  should  better  understand  the 
image  of  desolation  which  the  prophet  presented,  when  he 
foretold  that  God  would  take  away  from  the  city  "  the  voice 
of  tin-  bridegroom  and  the  bride,  the  sound  of  the  mi//.<t"it'*, 
and  the  light  of  the  candle."  (Jer.  xxv.  10.)  These  handmills 
are  still  used  all  over  the  East. 

Ovens  were  of  differ- 
ent sorts.  A  common 
fashion  was  to  make 
them  of  stone  or  brick, 
covered  over  with  mor- 
tar, something  in  the 
shape  of  a  large  pitcher. 
Fire  was  put  in  the 
inside,  and  the  doiurh 
. —  spread,  like  a  thin  paste, 

^JXililiiiii'lilllilllllllllllllllHilllllllllllll'IIIIIHilllll  ^^  over  the  outside;  it  was 
^=— ^  _ '  -- =Eis.:Sg>=s3g~"'  baked  in  less  than  a 
minute.  Another  oven  was  a  round  hole  dug  in  the  earth, 
and  paved  at  the  bottom  with  stones:  after  it  was  heated,  tl><> 
fire  was  taken  away,  the  cakes  placed  upon  the  stones,  and  the 
mouth  shut  up.  Because  other  fuel  was  often  scarce,  it  was 
ei minion,  (as  it  still  is  in  that  quarter  of  the  world,)  to  heat  ovens 
with  light  brushwood,  the  prunings  of  vines,  stubble,  and  such 
materials.  Dried  grass  of ten  » nswered  the  purpose :  "  If  God," 
said  the  Saviour,  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount,  "so  clothe  the 
grass  of  the  field,  which  to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  >t  runt  intn 
the  oven,  shall  he  not  much  more  clothe  you,  0  ye  of  little 
f:iitli ''"  (Matt.  vi.  30.)  The  dung  of  animals,  such  a,J  horses, 
camels,  and  cows,  thoroughly  dried,  was  employed  in  the  same 
manner.  In  many  places  of  the  east,  at  the  present  time,  it 
forms  the  most  general  supply  of  fuel  for  all  purposes  of  cook- 
ing or  baking,  and  is  laid  up  and  kept  in  large  stacks,  with 
much  care,  for  standing  family  use.  It  is  bought  and  sold,  also, 
by  cart-loads,  as  wood  is  in  other  countries  ,  Iw.ek.  iv  15.) 
Cakes  were  often  baked  in  the  ashes,  (Gen.  xviii.  6,)  and  some- 
time's  on  pans  or  plates  of  iron,  placed  over  the  fire.  (Lev.  ii  £.} 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OCCUPATIONS. 

SECTION    I. 

OF    THE    PASTORAL    LIFE. 

TTR  ORIGIN.  The  life  of  a  shepherd  had,  in  early 
much  to  recommend  it  to  the  choice  of  men.  It  was  attended 
Dnly  with  light  labour,  and  afforded,  generally,  a  sure  prospect 
jf  riches  and  independence.  While  the  human  race  continued 


comparatively  few  in  number,  I'ist  tracts  of  ground  lay  in  every 
lin  ction,  without  cultivation,  and  without  owner,  covered  with 
die  richest  pastures.  The  shepherd  had  but  to  withdraw  him- 
self from  the  more  thickly  settled  communities,  when  he  found, 
without  expense,  free  range  for  his  flocks  and  his  herds,  how 
<'\CT  vast  their  number;  and  when  the  grass  began  to  fail 
around  him  in  one  place,  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  gather  up 
!ii<i  tent  and  move  with  all  his  substance  to  some  other 


6S  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIKS. 

still  fresh  Tith  the  wild  abundance  of  nature.  He  had  no  hoim 
or  family  to  leave  behind,  in  his  wanderings ;  his  dwelling-place 
with  all  its  numerous  household,  followed  the  steps  of  his  flock  j 
and  for  him  to  wander  or  to  rest,  was  to  be  alike  at  home. 

ITS  PREVALENCE.  Accordingly,  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
world,  this  manner  of  life  found  great  numbers  to  embrace  it, 
in  the  irst  ages  of  time.  Before  the  flood,  Abel  was  a  keeper 
of  sheep,  and  Jabal  "  was  the  father  of  such  as  dwell  in  tents 
and  have  cattle."  After  that  great  event,  we  read  that  the 
illustrious  patriarchs  of  the  Jewish  nation,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  with  all  his  sons,  pursued  the  same  business.  These 
were  shepherds  of  the  highest  rank,  exceedingly  rich  in  silver, 
and  gold,  and  flocks  of  every  kind,  (Gen.  xiii.  2,  5,)  and  sur 
rounded  with  a  household  of  several  hundred  servants.  (Gen 
xiv.  14.)  Each  was  a  prince  in  the  midst  of  his  great  family, 
perfectly  independent;  making  war,  and  making  treaties  of 
peace,  with  states  and  tribes  around  him,  by  his  own  sovereign 
authority.  Such  a  she]  herd  was  Job,  also,  "  the  greatest  of  all 
the  men  of  the  east,"  iii  his  time.  By  reason  of  the  dignity 
and  power  which  belonged  to  the  prince-like  shepherds  of  ancient 
times,  as  well  as  on  account  of  the  tender  care  with  which  they 
governed  their  flocks,  it  became  customary  to  give  the  title  to 
rulers  and  kings.  God  himself  is  frequently  styled  a  shepherd, 
and  his  people  compared  to  a  flock  under  his  almighty  pro- 

teetion. 

In  Egypt,  the  Israelites  devoted  themselves  as  a  people  to 
the  employment  nf  their  fathers.  And  even  after  their  settle- 
ment in  the  land  of  promise,  although  husbandry  became  the 
national  business,  many  still  clung  to  this  early  manner  of  life. 
That  part  of  the  country  which  lay  east  of  the  Jordan  afforded 
peculiar  advantages  to  those  who  made  such  a  choice.  On 
this  account,  the  children  of  Reuben  and  Gad,  because  "  they 
had  a  very  great  multitude  of  cattle,"  requested  to  have  it  for 
their  inheritance.  (Numb,  xxxii.  1 — 5.)  The  mountainous 
tracts  of  Gilead  and  Bashan  abounded  with  the  finest  pastures, 
and  beyond  their  extensive  range  lay,  far  and  wide  outspread, 
the  wilderness  of  Arabia ;  which,  though  in  general  sandy  and 
barren,  had  yet  scattered  over  it  some  fertile  spots,  rising  like 
islands  on  the  dreary  ocean,  and  inviting  the  shepherd  to  wandei 
with  his  flocks  over  the  unoccupied  waste.  All  this,  except  the 
territories  of  Ammon  toward  the  north,  and  Moab  toward  the 
south,  belonged  properly  to  the  Israelites,  (Gen.  xv.  18 ;)  and 
we  read  that  the  shepherds  of  Reuben  did,  in  the  days  of  Saul, 
when  th«-ir  herds  were  greatly  multiplied  in  the  land  of  Gilead, 
destroy  four  Arabian  nations  who  opposed  their  way,  and  dwel* 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES-  *>9 

in  tents  far  cast  of  the  mountains,  toward  the  great  riv«r 
Euphrates.  (1  Chrun.  v.  9,  10,  18 — 22.)  It  was  not  alto 
getber  uncommon  to  pursue  the  same  kind  of  life  on  the  othei 
side  of  Jordan,  especially  among  the  hills  of  Ephraim  and 
Judah,  as  we  may  see  in  the  history  of  David.  The  business 
however,  could  not  be  conducted  on  the  same  great  scale,  as 
little  of  the  land  could  be  spared  from  the  labour  of  the  farmer. 
In  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  shepherds  were  still  found,  watch- 
ing their  flocks,  in  the  land  of  Judea.  (Luke  ii.  8.)  The 
nations  who  dwelt  to  the  south  and  south-east  of  the  land  of 
Canaan,  were  made  up,  in  a  great  measure,  of  unsettled  herds- 
men and  shepherds.  Such  were  the  Amalekites,  the  Ishmael- 
itcs,  and  Midianites.  They  owned,  indeed,  some  villages  and 
towns,  and  were  confined  in  some  measure  to  particular  regions 
of  the  broad  uncultivated  wilderness ;  but  they  had  no  fixed 
boundaries ;  whole  families  and  tribes  wandered  with  their  flocks 
from  place  to  place,  as  inclination  led,  and  thus  were  often 
found  far  asunder  from  the  body  of  their  nation,  or  even  sur- 
rounded, at  times,  with  the  tents  and  possessions  of  a  different 
people.  Thus  the  Kenites  were  found  within  the  borders  of 
Amalek,  when  Saul  came  to  destroy  that  devoted  nation. 
(1  Sam.  xv.  6.)  Even  the  country  of  Edora,  though  it  had 
much  cultivated  land  and  several  large  cities,  seems  to  have 
consisted,  in  a  great  part,  of  wild,  unsettled  wastes,  thus  occu- 
pied with  wandering  hordes  of  such  as  dwell  in  tents  and  are 
employed  with  the  care  of  cattle. 

CARK  OF  FLOCKS.  The  flocks  were  tended  by  servants ;  also 
by  the  sons,  and  frequently  by  the  daughters  of  the  owner,  who 
himself  was  often  employed  in  the  same  service.  In  the  sum- 
mer, they  generally  moved  toward  the  north,  or  occupied  the 
loftier  parts  of  the  mountains ;  in  the  winter,  they  returned  to 
the  south,  or  sought  a  favourable  retreat  in  the  valleys.  A 
shepherd  was  exposed  to  all  the  changes  of  the  season,  as  the 
lloek  required  to  be  watched  by  day  and  by  night  under  the 
open  sky.  Thus  Jacob  described  his  service :  "  In  the  day 
the  drought  consumed  me,  and  the  frost  by  night ;  and  my 
sleep  departed  from  mine  eyes."  So,  also,  the  shepherds  were 
watching  their  flocks  l>y  >n'</fit,  when  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
came  down  with  the  glad  tidings  of  a  Saviour's  birth.  The 
flocks  did  not,  however,  give  so  much  trouble  as  we  might 
imagine  such  vast  numbers  would.  They  grew  familiar  with 
the  rules  of  order,  and  learned  to  conform  themselves  to  the 
wishes  of  their  keeper,  on  the  slightest  notice.  They  Ix-came 
acquainted  with  his  voice,  and  when  called  by  its  sound,  im- 
ui<'diately  gathered  around  him.  It  was  even  common  to  give 


70  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

<»very  individual  of  the  flock  its  own  name,  to  which  it  learned 
t<>  attend,  as  horses  and  dogs  are  .iccustonicd  to  do  among  us 
If  the  keeper's  voice  was  at  any  time  not  heeded,  or  could  not 
reach  some  straggling  party,  he  had  but  to  tell  his  dog,  who 
was  almost  \\i~e  enough  to  manage  a  flock  by  himself,  and  im- 
mediately lie  was  seen  bounding  over  the  distance,  and  rapidly 
restoring  all  to  obedience  and  order.  When  he  wanted  to  move 
from  one  place  to  another,  he  called  them  all  together,  and 
marched  before  them,  with  his  stall'  in  his  hand,  and  his  dog 
by  his  side,  like  a  general  at  the  head  of  his  army,  riuch  is 
the  beautiful  discipline  which  still  is  often  seen  in  the  flocks  cf 
eastern  shepherds.  With  a  knowledge  of  these  circumstances, 
we  can  better  understand  the  language  of  our  Saviour,  in  his 
beautiful  parable  of  the  Shepherd  and  his  flock  :  "  The  sheep 
heaV  his  voice ;  and  he  calleth  his  own  sheep  by  name,  aud 
leadeth  them  out.  And  when  he  putteth  forth  his  own  sheep, 
he  goeth  before  them,  aud  the  sheep  follow  him  ;  for  they 
know  his  voice.  And  a  stranger  will  they  not  follow,  but  will 
flee  from  him ;  for  they  know  not  the  voice  of  strangers." 
(John  x.  3—5.) 

It  was  the  business  of  the  shepherd  to  protect  his  flock  from 
harm,  for  which'purpose  he  generally  carried  a  sling  or  bow; 
to  lead  them  where  sufficient  pasture  might  be  found ;  and  to 
take  care  that  they  were  well  supplied  with  water.  (Ps.  xxiii 
I — 4.)  The  last  thing  was  not,  generally,  in  those  regions 
.vhidi  were  traversed  by  shepherds,  a  very  easy  matter.  The 
ritrcam,  or  living  fountain,  were  seldom  to  be  found.  It  was 
necessary  to  dig  wells ;  and  as  the  flocks  had  to  be  led  to  dif- 
ferent pasturing  places,  sometimes  far  apart,  it  was  necessary 
to  dig  several  wells.  A  shepherd  who  managed  his  business 
right,  would  have  a  regular  round  of  places,  with  a  well  of 
water  at  each,  which  he  might  visit  in  succession  every  year. 
Thus  we  read  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  digging  one  well  after 
another.  It  is  easy  to  see,  that  where  water  was  so  scarce, 
while  for  the  support  of  large  herds  and  flocks  so  much  was 
wanted,  a  well  became  a  most  valuable  part  of  property.  (Gen. 
rxvi.  15 — 22,  32,  33,  Numb.  xx.  17 — 19.)  Hence,  they  were 
carefully  covered  and  concealed,  as  far  as  possible,  from  view, 
that  others  might  not  steal  away  the  water ;  another  reason  lor 
.•"vering  them,  was  to  keep  them  from  being  filled  up  with 
sanJ,  as  it  rolled  over  them  before  the  wind.  Sometimes, 
several  shepherds  had  a  well  in  common.  (Gen.  xxix.  2,  3.) 
It  was  a  cruel  act  to  stop  up  the  wells  of  any  people,  as  it  wa* 
common  for  enemies  to  do :  it  was  to  shepherds  as  bad  as  t!ic 
burning  of  houses  in  a  country  like  ours  The  flocks  were 


UIHL1CAL    ANTIQUITIES.  /I 

watered  twice  in  the  day;  at  uoon  and  about  sundown.     It 
was  a  laborious  business  to  draw  water  enough  for  so  great  a 


multitude.  The  wells  were  generally  very  deep ;  as  was  that 
one  of  Jacob,  where  our  Saviour  talked  with  the  woman  of 
Samaria.  (John  iv.  11.)  From  the  value  of  water,  in  places 
where  it  was  thus  scarce  and  difficult  to  be  procured,  it  became 
a  common  emblem  of  rich  blessings  of  any  sort,  and  especially 
of  spiritual  favour ;  so  that  God  himself  is  called  a  "  fountain 
of  living  waters."  (Jer.  ii.  13,  xvii.  13.) 

PRODUCE. — From  his  flocks,  the  shepherd  was  supplied,  aa 
we  have  already  seen,  with  almost  all  the  comforts  of  his  life. 
Except  a  little  grain  and  a  few  poles,  he  needed  nothing  for 
food,  or  for  raiment,  or  for  dwelling,  which  they  could  not 
furnish.  His  table  was  crowned,  as  often  as  he  chose,  with 
flesh  of  the  best  kind ;  which,  however,  in  those  warm  coun 
tries,  was  not  often  used,  except  on  great  festivals,  or  to  enter 
tain  strangers ;  while  every  day,  abundance  of  milk  and  cheese 
gave  relish  to  his  simple  meal.  The  butter  mentioned  in  the 
Bible,  was  not,  however,  like  ours;  it  was  something  that 
could  be  drunk,  as  Jael  is  said  to  have  offered  it  to  Siscra,  in  a 
lordly  dish,  when  he  askod  for  drink.  (Judg.  v.  25.)  Per- 
haps it  was  some  preparation  of  cruam.  We  read  of  "flood* 
vnd  brooks  of  honey  and  butter;"  and  of  washing  a  man'* 
steps  in  it.  (Job  xx.  17,  xxix.  6.)  Every  jUb^dwpruip,  es- 
pecially, added  to  the  wealth  of  the  muster  of  the  flock.  J» 


2  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

was  always  a  great  occasion.  The  sheep  were  all  gathered  into 
large  folds;  a  great  company  of  shearers  were  collected  to  the 
place;  an  unusual  preparation  of  food  took  place;  and  the 
whole  season,  which  generally  lasted  several  days,  was  turned 
into  a  complete  festival.  (2  Sam.  xiii.  23.)  By  selling  con- 
tinually their  cattle  and  various  kinds  of  produce  to  the  neigh- 
bouring cities,  the  shepherds  often  became  very  rich  in  silver 
and  gold,  as  well  as  in  their  flocks  and  herds;  for  as  it  was  not 
uncommon  for  them  to  farm  for  themselves  a  piece  of  land, 
sufficient  to  supply  them  with  grain,  they  supported  their  great 
households  almost  without  expense,  and  reaped  a  clear  profit 
from  every  thing  they  sold. 

MOPKKX  SHEPHKRDS. — The  east,  as  we  have  already  hinted, 
still  abounds  with  shepherds;  and  much  light  is  thrown  upon 
those  parts  of  Scripture  which  relate  to  the  circumstances  of 
early  pastoral  life,  liy  an  acquaintance  with  the  manners  and 
customs  of  these  wandering  tent-dwellers,  as  they  exist  in  our 
own  day.  The  same  vast  regions  of  uncultivated  country,  over 
which,  in  ancient  times,  so  many  scattered  families  travelled  with 
their  numerous  flocks  and  herds,  are  now  found  occupied  with 
various  tribes  of  their  posterity,  equally  unsettled  and  equally 
free.  Through  the  deserts  of  Arabia  and  Syria,  from  the  banks 
of  the  Nile  to  the  ancient  stream  of  Euphrates,  and  far  beyond, 
toward  the  rising  sun,  they  are  found,  ranging  from  one  pastur- 
ing place  to  another,  and  scorning  every  restraint  of  civilized 
fashion  or  power.  The  master  of  eaeli  family  is  a  chieftain,  or 
prince,  surrounded  oftentimes  with  many  hundred  dependants 
and  servants.  Many  of  them  arp  exceedingly  rich,  covering 
the  whole  country  for  miles,  as  they  pass  along,  with  immense 
droves  of  camels,  oxen,  cows,  asses,  goats,  and  sheep ;  and  pos- 
sessing, at  the  same  time,  treasures  of  silver  and  gold.  No 
doubt,  the  patriarchal  shepherds  of  the  Bible  resembled  some 
of  them  very  much,  in  their  wealth,  and  power,  and  manner  of 
life.  But  tiu-y  were  blessed  with  a  knowledge  of  the  true  God, 
and  their  tents  were  hallowed  with  the  pure  spirit  of  devotion, 
while  the  blackness  of  Mohammedan  error  reigns  in  the  families 
of  these.  We  may  be  certain,  therefore,  that  in  all  those  cir- 
cumstances of  character  which  only  can  give  true  ornament  or 
dignity  to  life,  whether  found  in  the  tent  or  the  palace,  the 
latter  come  far  short  of  showing  forth  any  true  representation 
•ji  the  former. 

"K  A  i.  I  M  AGERY. — We  have  said  that  God  is  often  com 
pared,  in  Scripture,  to  a  shepherd.  Under  the  same  image 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  beautifully  and  expressively  describes 
bis  relation  to  the  church ;  and  never  was  application  more 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  73 

aappy  and  complete.  The  sheep  of  his  flock  were  once  scattered 
upon  Uie  mountains,  without  shepherd  and  without  understand- 
ing, going  continually  a.«tray,  weary  and  faint  from  scantiness 
of  pasture'  and  distressing  want  of  water;  exposed  to  spoil  from 
the  arm  of  the  prowling  robber,  and  hunted  and  torn  by  the 
hungry  wild  beast  of  the  forest  He  saw  and  pitied.  He  left 
the  glorious  splendour  of  his  Father's  house,  to  follow  and  gather 
to  himself  the  mi  si-  rable  wanderers.  His  voice  was  heard  upon 
the  hilis,  calling  them  to  return  and  feed  under  his  care.  As 
they  listened  and  came,  he  builded  for  them  a  large  and  secure 
fold,  and  led  them  forth,  day  by  day,  to  fields  of  the  richest 
pasture,  and  by  quiet  streams  of  ever-running  water.  His  kind 
and  tender  care  was  constantly  employed  for  their  good ;  he 
strengthened  the  weak  and  cherished  the  sick;  leading  with 
gentleness  such  as  were  with  young,  and  gathering  the  lambs 
with  his  arm,  to  carry  them  fondly  in  his  bosom.  And  when 
the  hour  of  thickest  danger  came,  and  all  the  rage  of  the  enemy 
threatened  to  devour  and  destroy  the  entire  flock  at  once,  he 
shrunk  not  from  their  defence,  though  the  conflict  was  dread- 
ful beyond  all  expression.  He  met  the  danger  in  his  single 
strength,  and  firmly  laid  down  his  life  for  the  sheep!  But  in 
dying,  he  overcame,  and  wrought  a  deliverance  for  his  sheep, 
which  no  power  of  the  enemy  can  ever  destroy.  And  now, 
though  unseen  by  mortal  eyes,  he  is  still  present  with  the  flock, 
watching  over  it  with  the  same  tender  care,  conducting  its  steps 
by  the  pastures  and  waters  of  life,  and  shielding  its  path  from 
the  prowling  wolf  and  '  the  roaring  lion.'  To  secure  its  wel- 
fare, he  has  appointed,  under  himself,  many  servants  to  oversee 
and  tend  its  different  parts.  These  he  has  commanded,  with 
awful  solemnity,  to  be  faithful  Pastors,  or  shepherds,  and  to 
feed  his  flock  with  diligence  and  care;  they  act  at  all  times  under 
his  eye,  and  must  render  a  strict  account  of  their  ministry,  when 
He,  "  the  Chief  Shepherd,"  shall  finally  appear.  (Matt.  ix.  36. 
1  Pet.  ii.  25,  Isa.  xl.  11,  Ps.  xxiii.,  John  x.,  Jer.  xxiii.  3,  4 
Acts  xx.  28,  1  Pet.  v. 


SECTION  II. 
OF    HUSBANDRY. 


ADAM  began  to  cultivate  the  ground  directly  after  his  crea- 
tion :  it  was  his  business,  with  light  and  pleasant  labour,  to 
dress  and  keep  the  garden,  ere  yet  sin  had  blasted  its  original 
beauty.  After  the  fall,  the  earth,  pressed  under  the  weight  of 
the  Al might y'-»  fur»c,  no  longer  yielded  of  her  own  accord  th<> 


|4  ItlBLlCAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

necessary  fruits  of  life.  Labour  became  indispensable,  and,  a' 
the  SHIM-  time,  severe.  Since  that  time  it  has  been,  more  01 
in  every  age  and  in  every  nation,  an  occupation  of  u  en  to 
till  the  soil,  and  draw  from  its  bosom  the  means  of  subsistence 
uml  comfort. 

Many  nations,  however,  while  they  could  not  neglect  the 
business  altogether,  have  made  it  a  matter  of  comparatively 
small  attention  ;  rather  choosing,  from  the  situation  of  then 
countries  or  the  disposition  of  their  people,  to  secure  to  them 
selves  the  blessings  of  life,  by  giving  their  time  and  care  chiefly 
to  some  other  pursuit.  Hut  the  Israelites,  after  their  settlement 
in  Canaan,  were  almost  entirely  a  nation  of  farmers.  A  small 
portion  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Jordan,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
principally  occupied  with  the  care  of  flocks  and  herds ;  but  the 
great  body  of  the  people  spent  their  time,  almost  exclusively, 
in  cultivating  the  land.  Bjf  the  direction  of  (iod,  each  tribe 
had  its  own  particular  province,  and  every  family  in  that  tril>e 
its  own  plantation,  clearly  marked  out  from  all  the  rest.  No 
family  could  entirely  lose  its  plantation ;  for  it  never  could  be 
sold  for  any  longer  time  than  to  the  year  of  Jubilee.  Thus, 
while  the  daughters  of  any  house,  when  they  married,  were 
moved  away  to  the  inheritance  of  some  other  family,  the  sons, 
to  the  latest  generation,  continued  on  the  same  estate.  In  this 
way,  no  one  man  could  ever  buy  up  large  tract-  nf  country  for 
himself,  so  as  to  leave  multitudes  without  property  of  their  own, 
and  so  without  the  strongest  inducement  to  diligence.  Every 
individual  knew,  that  whatever  labour  or  care  he  bestowed  upon 
his  farm,  it  could  never  be  utterly  lost  to  his  family,  and  thus 
was  animated  to  spare  no  pains  in  its  cultivation.  And  as  the 
portion  which  fell  to  each,  where  all  were  entitled  to  share, 
was  necessarily  small,  it  was  managed  with  the  more  skilful 
art;  from  which  it  came  to  pass,  that  the  whole  face  of  the 
country  presented  an  appearance  of  the  highest  cultivation,  so 
that  probably  no  country  that  was  overseen,  could  compare,  in 
Jiis  respect,  witl  the  land  of  Palestine  in  those  days. 

We  have  already  considered  the  different  productions  of  this 
country,  which  claimed,  in  ancient  time>,  the  attention  of  tin? 
Jewish  farmer.  It  remains  to  notice  his  various  methods  of 
labour,  as  employed  at  different  seasons,  in  the  several  depart- 
ments of  his  care. 

THE    FIELD. 

To  prepare  the  ground  for  sowing,   mmcdiately  after  the  firnt 

short  season  of  rain  in   the  fall,  he   -'t  liini<e]t'  to  break  it  u[, 
•rith  the  plough.     His  pluvyh.,  MW.-V.T,  was  a  trifling  thinp, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


75 


ir.  eon>r>arison  with  one  of  ours.     It  was  probably  much  like 
thft  uJ«,ughs  that  arc  used  at  the  present  day  in  eastern  coun 
One  of  those  is  often  so  light,  that  a  man  can  lift  it  with 


•me  hand  ;  and  when  it  passes  over  the  ground,  it  leaves  onlj  a 
Moderate  wmtch  behind,  instead  of  the  deep,  broad  furrow 
which  iri-  are  accustomed  to  see.  The  plcntyhdiart  is  a  piece 
of  iron,  somewhat  broad,  but  not  large,  fixed  to  the  end  of  a 
shaft  that  lies  flat.  Two  handles,  and  sometimes  only  one, 
standing  nearly  upright  from  this  shaft,  prepare  it  to  be  guided 
by  the  ploughman's  hand ;  while  a  pole  of  sufficient  length, 
rudely  fastened  to  the  bottom,  near  the  handles,  and  slanting 
upward  to  the  proper  height,  answers  the  purpose  of  a  beam,  to 
which  is  fixed  the  common  yoke  for  drawing.  The  share  has 
a  good  deal  of  likeness  to  the  short  sword  that  was  anciently 
used,  and  might  easily  be  beaten  into  such  an  instrument.  It 
was  not  uncommon,  once,  to  change  one  into  the  other,  as  we 
may  learn  from  the  language  of  the  prophet:  "Beat  ymr 
ploughshares  into  swords,  and  your  pruning  hooks  into  spears." 
•.Joel  iii.  10.  See  also  Isa.  ii.  4.)  With  such  a  light,  unsteady 
plough,  the  ploughman  needs  the  greatest  caution  arid  cam  to 
kivp  it  in  the  ground,  or  to  make  a  straight  furrow  ;  he  must 
lie  continually  bending  over  and  pressing  upon  it,  so  as  to  pi*- 


76 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


ir  ste'  11  ness  and  weight.  For  a  man,  therefore,  who  undertook 
to  iiia  iage  a  Jewish  plough,  to  turn  his  head  behind  him,  was 
even  more  imprudent  and  foolish  than  the  same  thing  is  with 
us.  To  this  our  Saviour  refers;  "No  man,  having  put  his 
hand  to  the  plough  and  looking  back,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  (Luke  ix.  <i'2.  > 

The  ground  was  levelled  with  a  hnrrov*  still  more  rude.  It 
seems  to  have  been  generally  a  mere  heavy  clump  of  wood, 
drawn  over  the  field,  to  make  plain  ffir  fare  of  It,  before  the 
seed  was  sown,  (Isa.  xxviii.  24,  '2f> ;)  or  sometimes,  jx-rhaps,  ;i 
wicker-drag,  or  a  large  rough  piece  of  brushwood,  to  cover  tin 
grain  ;  this,  however,  was,  in  most  cases,  probably  done  b) 
ploughing  it  over  with  a  cross  furrow. 

Hulls  and  cows,  he-asses  and  she-asses,  were  the  common 
beasts  of  labour.  If  a  bull  became  wild  and  hard  to  manage,  a 
bole  was  bored  through  his  nostrils,  and  a  ring  of  iron,  m 

twisted  cord,  fixed  it> 
it ;  to  this  was  fasti  ne<l 
a  rope,  by  which  it 
could  be  so  pulled  an  1 
twisted,  as  to  stop  the 
animal's  breath  almost 
entirely,  and  so  rendei 
the  most  furious  quite  orderly.  By  this  same  contrivance,  i. 
was  common  tc  manage  camels,  and  ev.'ii  elephants  and  lio'is, 
when  they  took  them  alive.  To  this  practice  the  Lord  alludes, 
in  his  a  idress  to  the  Assyrian  king:  •'  Hecause  thy  raire  against 
me  and  thy  tumult  is  come  up  into  mine  ear-,  therefore  I  will 
put  mi/  look  in  tin/  nose,  and  my  bridle  in  thy  lips  and  1  will 
'urn  thee  back  by  the  way  by  which  thou  < MMV  •  t  "  '2  King.- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  77 

xix.  28.)  So  also  in  that  grand  description  of  leviathan,  it  is 
asked :  "  Canst  thou  put  an  hook  into  his  nose  ?"  to  intimate 
that  no  art  can  manage  his  strength.  (Job  xli.  2,  Ezek.  xxxviii. 
4.)  Both  ox  and  ass  worked  under  a  yoke  fixed  over  their 
necks,  and  tied  with  ropes  to  the  beam.  It  was  not  lawful, 
however,  to  couple  one  with  the  other,  under  the  same  yoke ; 
not  only  because  they  were  animals  of  unequal  strength  and 
different  habits,  and  because  every  such  connection  is  unnatural 
and  unpleasant,  but  also  to  make  sacred  distinction  between  the 
clean  and  the  uncfcan,  as  the  ox  stood  chief  among  beasts  of  the 
former  class,  and  the  ass  among  those  of  the  latter.  The  yoke 
is  a  natural  symbol  of  authority  and  power ;  and  to  carry  it, 
denotes  subjection  and  obedience.  The  Saviour  invites  us  to 
take  upon  us  his  yoke,  because  it  is  easy.  (Matt.  xi.  29,  30.) 
Sin  fastens  on  the  neck  a  heavy  yoke  of  pain  and  sorrow.  (Lam. 
i.  14.)  To  "  break  the  yoke,"  means,  to  burst  loose  from 
authority  and  cast  off  all  submission,  (Jer.  v.  5 ;)  when  done 
for  any  one  by  another,  it  is  deliverance  from  oppression  and 
bondage.  (Isa.  ix.  4,  Iviii.  6.)  The  ploughman  was  furnished 
with  a  pole,  seven  or  eight  feet  long,  armed  at  one  end  with  a 
flat  piece  of  iron  for  cleaning  the  plough,  and  at  the  other,  with 
a  spike  for  spurring  his  beasts.  This  was  called  the  ox-goad. 
It  was  sometimes  used  in  war  for  a  spear,  and  made,  when  skil- 
fully handled,  a  very  good  weapon.  With  such  an  instrument 
in  his  hand,  Shamgar  made  his  bold  attack  on  the  Philistines, 
and  six  hundred  fell  dead  on  the  spot.  ( Judg.  iii.  31.) 

It  was  common  to  begin  to  sow  toward  the  end  of  October . 
it  was  not,  however,  too  late  to  sow  wheat  in  December  j  while 
January,  and  even  February,  was  soon  enough  for  the  barley. 
There  was  no  frost  to  hinder  ploughing,  through  the  whole 
winter.  It  was  desirable,  however,  to  get  as  well  on  in  the 
business  as  possible,  during  that  period  of  fair  weather  which 
always  followed  the  first  few  days  of  rain  in  the  fall ;  for,  after 
it  was  over,  the  labour  of  the  farmer  was  continually  exposed  to 
interruption  from  the  showers  of  rain  which  fall  so  abundantly, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  from  that  time  to  the  season  of  harvest. 

The  grain  became  ripe  very  soon  after  the  litter  rains  were 
over.  On  the  second  day  of  the  Passover,  which,  as  we  shall  here- 
after  see,  came  considerably  sooner  in  some  years  than  in  others, 
a  barley  sheaf  was  presented  as  an  offering  of  the  first  fruits  of 
thi-  harvest,  at  the  altar  of  God.  After  this,  the  business  of 
reaping  began;  first,  the  barley  was  cut;  then  the  wheat  and 
"* her  kinds  of  grain.  The  time  of  harvest  lasted  seven  weeks, 
trmn  the  Passover  until  Pentecost,  which  came,  generally,  not 
far  from  the  beginning  of  June.  It  was  a  joyful  reason.  Tho 


78 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIKS. 


master  was  seen  in  his  field  in  the  midst  of  his  servants  and 
••hiMreii.  as  they  pursued  their  work  with  dbeerfol  and  con- 
tented  diligence.  Age  and  youth  united  their  hands  in  the 
Imsv  -eciipation,  and  even  maidens  came  forth  to  the  field,  ai:d 
lent  tin  :r  assistance  in  the  general  work.  On  every  side,  the 
iiin\,  in  -tit  of  industry  was  displayed,  as  the  reajx-r  plied  the 
ni'-kle.  or  the  binder's  bosom  was  filled  with  the  new-made  sheaf; 
while  the  song  of  gladness,  as  it  frequently  rose  from  th* 
scene,  carried  in  its  simple  melody  an  assurance  of  satisfaetion, 
which  the  music  of  palaces  failed  to  express.  (Ps.  cxxix.  7,  Isa. 
ix.  3.)  What  a  beautiful  picture  docs  the  harvest  field  of  JJoaz 
present,  as  it  is  described  in  the  second  chapter  of  Knth !  The 
Jewish  fanner  was  not  allowed  to  forget  the  poor  in  this  season 
of  joyful  labour:  ''When  ye  reap  the  harvest  of  your  land," 
said  the  Almigrty,  "  thou  shalt  not  wholly  reap  the  i-nmi-r*  of 
thy  land:  neither  shalt  thou  gather  the  ry/w ///'////>•  of  thy  har- 
vest; thou  shalt  leave  them  for  the  poor  and  the  stranger;  I 
am  the  Lord  thy  God."  (Lev.  xix.  0,  10.) 

The  grain  was  next  carried  to  the  T/iri'*hf/ti/-ffiMir,  on  beasts 
of  burden,  or  in  wagons.  All  irtii/»ns,  in  those  days,  moved 
upon  tirn  wheels  only,  like  our  carts:  frequently,  however, 
they  had  beds  of  considerable  size.  The  threshing-floor  was 
in  the  field  itself,  on  the  top  of  some  rising  ground,  where  it 
might  be  most  open  on  all  sides  to  the  wind.  It  had  neither 
covering  or  walls;  and  was,  in  fact  nothing  more  than  a  suffi- 
cient space  of  ground,  levelled  with  a  great  roller,  and  beaten 
so  as  to  become  completely  hard.  Hen1,  the  sheaves  were 
thrown  together  in  a  loose  heap,  ready  for  threshing.  To  beat 
out  the  lighter  kinds  of  grain,  a  flail  or  cudgel  was  employed; 
for  crops  of  the  heavier  sort,  such  as  wheat  and  barley,  tho 
common  methods  were  the  feet  of  oxen  or  the  threshing 
machine.  The  ox  was  used  to  tread  out  grain  very  early. 
(Dcut.  xxv.  4.) 

The  Thres/i- 
iinj  Instrument 
was  not  always 
made  in  the 
same  way  in 
every  particu- 
lar; the  ge- 
neral form, 
however,  was 
commonly  the 
same.  Imagine 
four  stout  pieces  of  timber  joined  together  in  a  square  frame, 


U 1  li  L  1  C  A  L    ANTIQUITIES. 


79 


and  three  or  four  heavy  rollers, 
with  axleri  at  each  end,  reaching 
across  and  turning  in  its  oppo- 
site sides;  suppose  each  of  these 
rollers  to  have  round  it  three 
iron  wheels,  cut  into  sharp  teeth, 
like  a  saw,  or  to  be  armed  with 
thick  pieces  of  the  same  metal, 
standing  out  six  inches  all  over  its  surface;  Mien  fancy  a  body 
:>f  sonic  sort  raised  over  this  frame,  with  a  seat  for  a  man  to 
sit  upon  and  ride,  and  you  will  form  a  pretty  correct  notion  of 
this  powerful  machine.  Mounted  on  his  seat,  with  a  yoke  of 


oxen  before  him,  the  driver  directed  it  round  the  floor.  The 
rollers,  as  they  turned  heavily  along,  crushed  and  broke  all 
'•et'ore  them.  The  front  part  of  the  machine  was  turned  up- 
ward, like  the  runners  of  a  sled  or  sleigh,  so  as  to  pass  along 
without  becoming  choked  with  the  straw. 

The  Cart,  which  Isaiah  says  was  used  in  threshing,  was  only 
some  particular  form  of  this  instrument.  (Isa.  x.\\,iii.  27,  28.) 
Threshing  with  such  &  machine  presented  a  very  impressive 
image  of  destruction  and  slaughter;  and,  accordingly,  we  find 
it  several  times  introduced  in  the  figurative  style  of  Bcrij/ture 


8U  BIBLICAL    ANTIQLlTlf..-.. 

to  express  the  severest  judgments  of  God,  or  the  most  cruel 
violence  of  war.    (Hah.  iii.   1'J,  Amos  i.  3.) 

The  next  business  was  t<>  </•//<//•///•  the  grain,  or  separate  ii 
from  the  straw  and  chaff.  This  was  done  by  throwing  it  up 
before  the  wind,  with  a  fork  or  shovel.  The  straw,  by  the 
force  of  tin-  flinching  instrument,  was  so  cut  up  and  brokeu 
into  small  pieces,  that  it  readily  flew  off  sonic  distance  with  the 
chaff.  The  grain  was  then  cleared  of  heavier  substances,  such 
as  lumps  of  earth,  with  a  sieve.  It  wa<  because  wiirl  was  so 
necessary  in  this  business,  that  the  threshing  floor  was  always 
on  a  high  place,  like  that  of  Araunah,  the  Jebusite.  But  to 
assist  in  driving  away  the  straw  and  chaff,  it  was  common  tx> 
use  also  a  fan.  (Isa.  xxx.  24.)  To  purge  the  heap  thoroughly, 
it  was  necessary  to  expose  it  to  the  wind  more  than  once.  As 
threshing  is  used  figuratively  for  severe  destruction,  so  is  win- 
nowing fr.r  the  scattering  of  a  vanquished  people:  "  Behold," 
says  God  to  his  church,  "I  will  make  thee  a  new  sharp  thresh- 
ing instrument,  having  teeth;  thou  shalt  thresh  the  mountains, 
and  beat  them  small,  and  .-halt  make  the  hills  as  chaff.  Thou 
shalt  fan  them,  and  the  wind  shall  carry  them  away,  and  the 
whirlwind  shall  scatter  them!"  Isa.  xli.  15,  16.)  The  same 
image  is  employed,  also,  fearfully  to  represent  the  separation 
of  the  wicked  from  the  righteous,  and  their  utter  desolation 
before  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty.  They  shall  be  "  as  the 
chaff  that  is  drven  with  the  whirlwind  out  of  the  floor;"  "as 
stubble  before  *he  wind,  and  as  chaff  that  the  storm  carrieth 
away."  (Hop  xiii.  3,  Job  xxi.  18,  Ps.  i.  4.)  And  as  it  was 
also  common  *n  set  fire  to  the  chaff,  as  it  lay  mingled  with  the 
more  broken  and  useless  parts  of  the  straw  in  a  neighbouring 
pile,  the  i^age  became  more  terrible  still.  (Isa.  v.  24.)  Thus, 
the  righteous  judgment  which  Christ  will  execute  upon  the 
ungodly,  is  represented  by  John  the  Baptist :  "  His  tan  is  in 
his  hand,  and  he  will  throughly  purge  his  floor,  and  gather 
his  wheat  into  the  garner;  but  he  will  burn  up  the  chaff 
with  unquenchable  fire.  (Matt.  iii.  \'2.')  The  straw  that  was 
less  broken  was  carefully  laid  up  for  the  use  of  cattle. 

CARE  OF  THE  VINE. 

The  cultivation  of  the  vine  formed  another  most  important 
jurt  of  Jewish  husbandry.  Vlmi/urd*,  as  we  have  already 
Been,  were  generally  planted  on  the  sides  of  hills  and  moun- 
tains. Much  labour  was  employed  to  prepare  the  ground.  The 
stones  were  carefully  gathered  out;  the  rock  was  often  covered 
over  with  soil,  piled  up  so  as  to  make  a  broad  platform  on  the 
sloping  height;  the  whole  was  surrounded  with  a  hedge  01 


HI  DMCA  I,     ANTIQUITIES.  81 

«*ull;  the  ground  was  carefully  dug,  and  set  with  plants  of  the 
choicest  kind  ;  a  press  was  sunk  tor  making  wine;  a  tower  was 
raised,  in  whieli  all  the  tools  and  other  articles  necessary  for 
the  labourers  might  be  kept,  and  where  one  or  more  watchmen 
might  always  stay  to  guard  the  enclosure  from  thieves  and 
wild  animals,  especially  foxes,  which  were  very  troublesome. 
(Song  ii.  15.)  These  towers  seem  to  have  been  sometime* 
built  with  much  elegance,  and  fitted  up  with  expensive  care,  as 
places  of  pleasure  as  well  as  mere  use,  where  the  rich  owner 
might  occasionally  resort  with  his  friends,  to  enjoy,  for  a  few 
days,  its  agreeable  retreat.  God  compares  his  care  of  the  Jew- 
ish nation  to  the  care  which  the  husbandman  was  accustomed 
to  bestow  on  his  vineyard.  (Isa.  v.  1,2,  Ps.  Ixxx.  9 — 13.)  Our 
Saviour  uses  the  same  image :  "  There  was  a  certain  house- 
holder which  planted  a  vineyard,  and  hedged  it  round  about, 
and  digged  a  wine  press  in  it,  and  built  a  tower,  and  let  it  out 
to  husbandmen,  and  went  into  a  far  country,"  &c.  (Matt.  xxi. 
33.)  The  vines  were  pruned  several  times  a  year,  with  an 
instrument  made  for  the  purpose,  and  called  the  Pruniny-hook 

The  vintage,  or  season  for  gathering  grapes,  began  early  in 
the  fall,  about  the  middle  of  September,  and  generally  lasted 
about  two  months.  It  was  a  time  of  even  more  gladness  than 
harvest.  With  songs  and  shoutings  that  sounded  all  over  the 
hills,  the  labourers  proceeded  in  their  work ;  gathering  the 
great  clusters  into  baskets,  and  bearing  them  to  the  Wine-press. 
This  was  commonly  dug,  like  a  vat,  into  the  grouad,  and 
secured  over  the  bottom  and  round  the  sides,  with  stone-work, 
plastered  so  as  to  hold  the  juice;  frequently,  it  was  hewed  in 
a  solid  rock.  It  consisted  of  two  separate  parts  or  vats  close 
together;  one  of  which  was  sunk  considerably  lower  than  the 
other.  The  grapes  were  thrown  into  the  upper  vat,  where 
they  were  trodden  completely,  by  the  feet  of  five  or  six  men, 
and  the  juice,  as  it  was  pressed  out,  ran  through  a  small 
grated  opening  in  the  side,  close  by  the  bottom,  down  into  the 
lower  one.  The  t  readers  sung,  and  shouted,  and  jumped  ;  and 
all  their  garments  became  thoroughly  stained  with  the  red 
blood  of  the  grapes.  (Jer.  xxv.  30,  xlviii.  32,  33.) 

Out  of  the  juice  was  made  Wine  and  Vtnfyar.  The  new 
wine  was  commonly  put  into  new  goat-skin  bottles,  with  the 
hairy  >ide  turned  inwards.  (Job  xxxii.  19,  Matt.  ix.  17.)  It 
be  a  me  betl>r  the  longer  it  was  kept,  when  the  dregs  all 
sctthd  to  the  bottom.  (Isa.  xxv.  6.)  Besides  the  vinegar 
which  is  usual  among  us,  and  to  which  Solomon  rci\  rs  in  one 
of  his  proverbs,  'Prov.  x.  26,)  there  was  a  sort  of  weak  wine, 
•ised  very  eomm  mly  by  labourers,  which  was  called  by  t 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


samo  name.  Such  was  that  vinegar  which  the  workmen  of 
Boaz  used  in  his  harvest  field.  (Ruth  ii.  14.)  This  was  a 
common  drink  also  among  the  Roman  soldiers,  and  seems  to 
have  been  that  ri/n'./nr  which  one  of  them  presented  in  a 
sponge  to  our  Saviour,  when  he  hung  upon  the  cross,  i  Matt. 
xxvii.  48.)  The  "  vinegar  mingled  with  gall,"  which  had 
been  before  offered  to  him,  (v.  34,)  and  which  Mark  calls 
"wine  mii.gled  with  myrrh,"  was  a  preparation  of  wine  mixed 
with  this  bitter  substance,  and  frequently  given  to  criminals 
doomed  to  suffer  death,  in  order  to  stupify  their  feeling,  and 
so  take  away  the  sense  of  pain.  Our  Lord  refused  the  cup; 
he  would  not  consent,  in  the  deepest  agony  of  his  suffering,  to 
taste  a  drink  that  could  bring  relief  only  as  it  deranged  and 
blunted  the  natural  powers  of  the  soul.  What  a  lesson  for 
those  who,  in  times  of  sorrow,  betake  themselves  to  strong 
drink  !  What  a  lesson  for  those  who  deliberately  sacrifice 
reason  and  sense  for  the  brutal  pleasure  of  intemperance,  with- 
out even  this  wretched  plea  ! 

The  tiv.idiiiL'  of  the  wine-Jin--*  is  u-ed  fiirurathely  to  denote 
vengeance  and  wrath,  disj, laved  in  the  terrible  destruction  of 
i-nnnies.  Thus  the  Redeemer  is  represented  as  trampling 
upon  the  enemies  of  his  people :  "  Who  's  this,"  the  prophet 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  fjft 

inquires,  as  he  saw,  in  vision,  one  coming  toward  him  in 
triumph,  from  the  south:  "Who  is  this  that  comcth  from 
Ivinii),  with  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah  ?  this  that  is  glorious 
in  his  apparel,  travelling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ?" 
A.n  answer  njfurns  :  "I  that  speak  in  righteousness,  mighty  to 
•save."  The  prophet  again  asks  :  u  Wherefore  art  thou  red  in 
thine  apparel,  and  thy  garments  like  him  that  treadeth  in  the 
wine-vat?"  The  reply  comes:  "I  have  trodden  the  wine- 
press alone;  and  of  the  people  there  was  none  with  me  :  for  ! 
will  tread  them  in  mine  anger,  and  trample  them  in  my  fury ; 
and  their  blood  shall  be  sprinkled  upon  my  garments,  and  I 
will  stain  all  my  raiment."  (Isa.  Ixiii  1—3.)  The  samo 
figure  is  employed  in  the  book  of  Revelation.  (Rev.  xiv.  18.) 
'J  he  wrath  of  (iod  is  compared  also  to  a  cup  of  strong  wine,  on 
account  of  its  overwhelming  effects.  Such  wine  was  doeply 
red  ;  and  oftentimes,  to  render  it  still  more  powerful,  it  waa 
mixed  with  different  spices.  "  In  the  hand  of  the  Lord," 
says  the  Psalmist,  "there  is  a  cup,  and  the  wine  is  red;  it  is 
full  of  mixture ;  and  he  poureth  out  of  the  same :  but  the 
dregs  thereof,  all  the  wicked  of  the  earth  shall  wring  them  out 
and  drink  them."  (Ps.  Ixxv.  8.) 

Orates  were  sometimes  dried  in  the  sun,  and  preserved  in 
11. asses  or  cakes,  like  figs.  These  were  the  dusters,  or  Imtirhcs 
i>f  mi  tins,  which  Abigail  presented  to  David  on  one  occasion, 
and  Ziba  on  another.  (1  Sam.  xxv.  18,  2  Sam.  xvi.  1.)  The 
Jews  were  not  allowed  to  gather  the  fruit  of  their  vines,  or  of 
any  other  tree,  until  the  fifth  year  after  it  began  to  bear.  (Lev. 
xix.  23—25.) 

CARE   OF    FRUIT   TREES. 

The  Olive  also  yielded  a  rich  reward  to  the  husbandman's 
care.  The  fruit  was  sometimes  beaten  off  the  tree  with  a  long 
stick  or  pole,  and  at  other  times  shaken.  It  was  not  allowed 
to  go  over  the  boughs  a  second  time;  the  few  olives  that  still 
clung  to  the  tree  were  to  be  left  for  the  poor,  as  wore  the 
grapes  that  were  passed  over  in  the  vintage.  (Deut.  xxiv.  20, 
21.)  The  gleaning  of  olives  and  grapes  is  used  to  represent  a 
sweeping  judgment  of  God,  that  leaves  scarcely  any  thing  be- 
hind. (Isa.  xvii.  6,  xxiv.  13.)  Olives  were  trodden  in  a  press 
of  a  particular  kind,  as  well  as  grapes.  The  word  Gethstwane 
means  an  ail-press  ;  no  doubt,  because  such  a  press,  and  per- 
haps more  than  one,  was  mucu  used  there,  for  making  oil  from 
the  fruit  that  grew  so  plentifully  around,  upon  the  Mount  of 
()l!r,-s.  The  oil  was  very  valuable;  answering,  in  a  great  de- 
gree, among  the  Jews,  the  same  purposes  that  butter  does  witf 


1*4  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

;«,  and,  at  the  ^  inn  time,  supplying  them  with  light  in  their 
lamps.  Sometimes,  the  fruit  was  plucked  before  it  was  ripe, 
und  instead  of  1>»  ing  r:i.-t  into  the  press,  was  only  beaten  and 
squeezed.  The  oil  obtained  in  this  way  was  the  best,  and  wa.- 
:-alled  beaten  oil ;  the  sacred  lamp  in  the  Sanctuary  was  always 
fed  with  such.  (Ex.  xxvii.  20.)  The  best  kind  of  oil  was  also 
mixed  with  spices  and  used  for  ointment;  all  the  rest  was  em- 
ployed, in  various  ways,  for  food,  or  for  common  lamps.  To 
"dip  the  foot  in  oil,"  is  an  expression  that  signifies  to  po&soss 
a  rich  and  fruitful  inheritance.  (Deut.  xxxiii.  24.)  Oil,  as  has 
been  already  said,  was  a  common  emblem  for  gladness,  and 
grace  of  every  kind. 

Of  other  fruits,  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  particularly, 
though  several  of  them  were  highly  valuable.  Their  character 
and  use  have  been  already  briefly  noticed,  in  our  account  of 
trees.  The  Jews  were  very  fond  of  gardens,  and  employed, 
frequently,  a  great  deal  of  care,  to  make  them  not  only  profit- 
able, but  also  beautiful  and  pleasant.  In  that  warm  country, 
it  is  peculiarly  agreeable  to  have  such  retreats,  provided  with 
ever}'  thing  that  ean  gratify  and  refresh.  Shadowy  walks, 
overhung  with  fruits  of  richest  fragrance;  delightful  arbours, 
deeply  hid  within  the  cool  and  silent  bosom  of  some  grove 
planted  with  fair  and  stately  trees ;  streamlets  of  water,  sent 
forth  from  a  constant  source,  and  winding  their  way  in  every 
direction  over  the  whole  scene  of  fruitfulness  and  beauty  :  these 
are  luxuries  so  agreeable  to  eastern  taste,  that  the  rich  cannot 
consent  to  be  entirely  without  them,  if  they  can  be  secured  by 
any  expense  of  labour  or  art.  It  was  common,  in  ancient 
times,  to  build  sepulchres  in  gardens,  for  the  burial  of  the  dead. 
Thus  Maoasseh,  we  are  told,  was  buried  in  tl-e  garden  of  his 
own  house.  (2  Kings  xxi.  18.)  So  also  in  the  place  where 
our  Saviour  was  crucified,  "  there  was  a  garden,  and  in  the  gar- 
den a  new  sepulchre,"  in  which  his  body  was  laid.  (John  xix. 

HONEY. 

Bees  formed  another  object  of  care  with  the  Jewish  farmers 
They  abounded  in  their  country  from  the  earliest  times;  so 
that  it  was  called,  by  way  of  description,  "a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey."  These  little  animals  often  laid  up  their 
stores  in  hollow  trees,  or  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  (Ps.  Ixxxi. 
16  ;)  but  more  commonly,  we  may  suppose,  in  hives,  as  with  us 
Uoney  was  very  much  used  at  home,  but  made  in  such  great 
quantities  that  it  was  also  carried  away  to  supply  other  coun- 
tries, especially  in  traffic  with  the  Tyrians.  (Ezek.  xxvii.  17.) 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  85 

liutter  or  cream,  and  honey,  were  esteemed  a  great  delicacy, 
and  it  was  a  sign  of  plenty  in  the  land,  when  this  kind  of  food 
ibounded.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  meaning  of  that  pro- 
mise to  Ahaz,  that  before  the  child  that  was  soon  to  be  born 
should  be  old  enough  to  know  good  from  evil,  the  country 
should  be  delivered  from  her  enemies,  and  such  prosperity  re- 
stored, that  butter  and  honey  would  be  his  common  food.  (Isa 
vii.  15,  16.)  The  same  taste  still  continues  in  eastern  coun- 
tries :  cream  and  honey  are  accounted,  especially  among  the 
Arabs,  the  richest  luxury  of  the  breakfast  table.  There  wa* 
also  a  kind  of  vil<l  honey,  not  uncommon  in  that  region.  It 
was  not  made  by  bees,  but  collected  from  other  little  insects 
upon  the  leaves  of  certain  trees,  so  as  to  drop  down  quite 
plentifully ;  sometimes  all  over  the  ground.  Such  was  the 
honey  which  Jonathan  tasted  in  the  wood ;  the  honeycomb  into 
which  he  is  said  to  have  dipped  his  rod,  was  merely  a  collection 
of  this  wild  substance.  (1  Sam.  xiv.  25 — 27.)  The  honey 
which  .John  the  Baptist  used  for  food  in  the  wilderness,  might 
have  been,  at  least  in  part,  of  this  sort ;  though  it  is  probable 
he  found  there  much  honey  of  the  common  kind,  as  to  this 
day  very  considerable  quantities  are  laid  up  among  the  rocks, 
through  that  same  region  of  country  :  this  might  very  properly 
!«  called  wild  honey,  as  well  as  the  other.  (Matt.  iii.  4.) 


Tin-  lilraiu-rii. 


SECTION   HI. 
EMPLOYMENTS    OF   HANDICRAFT,    TRADE,  &C. 

AuiucL'LTi  UK,  as  has  been  said,  was  the  main  business  of 
(lie  whole  Jewish  nation.  It  was  rendered,  1>\  tin-  very  c»n 
stituti  'ii  of  the  state,  the  necessary  occupation  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people.  Hence,  there  were  not  with  them,  us  with 
u>,  large  clasps  of  men  employed  altogether  in  the  different 
mechanic  arts,  or  in  the  business  of  commerce.  Tradesmen 
and  merchants,  who  make  up  so  respectable  a  portion  of  the 
community  in  our  country,  were,  for  a  long  time,  of  almost  no 
account  in  theirs;  and,  in  fact,  could  not  he  said  to  have  been 
known  at  all,  as  distinct,  regular  orders,  in  the  system  of  society. 
This  state  of  things  underwent  a  little  alteration,  after  the  time 
of  Solomon.  Tradesmen  grew  more  numerous,  and  began  to 
form,  in  some  measure,  a  se para te  class  of  citizens.  Commerce 
also  with  foreign  nations  became,  in  some  degree,  and  especially 
at  two  or  three  different  periods,  an  object  of  attention.  It 
was  not,  however,  until  the  time  of  the  captivity,  that  the 
character  of  society  was  very  materially  changed.  After  that 
event,  a  great  number  of  Jews  became  merchants,  and  travelled, 
for  the  purposes  of  traffic,  into  all  countries.  It  grew  com- 
mon, also,  to  learn  particular  trades  ;  and  hence,  we  find  them 
frequently  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament. 

It  may  be  asked,  how  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities  were  em- 
ployed in  those  times,  when  we  suppose  merchants  and  tradi •>- 
men  to  have  been  so  few  in  the  land.  The  answer  is,  that 
cities  then  were  generally  very  small,  and  pretty  much  tilled 
with  husbandmen.  Their  small  farms  lay  scattered  over  tin- 
country  round,  and  their  chief  care  was  to  attend  to  thier  cul- 
tivation. (Judg.  xix.  15,  16.)  Several  of  them  belonged  to 
the  Levites,  who  had  their  particular  employment  in  another 
way.  Some  of  the  larger  ones,  only,  discovered  something  ot 
the  mercantile  character;  while  a,  few  artists  might  possibly 
be  found  in  many,  if  not  all.  This,  however,  was  not  enough 
to  give  any  importance  to  either  kind  of  occupation,  as  forming 
a  distinct  profession  in  society. 

Among  the  earlier  Jews,  a  great  many  articles  that  we  are 
in  the  habit  of  getting  made  for  us  by  different  tradesmen, 
were  manufactured  in  every  man's  own  family,  a,s  they  were. 
wanted.  The  women  spun  and  wove,  besides  doing  every  sort 
of  needle-work ;  thus  clothing  was  made  for  the  whole  family. 
And  as  it  was  common  to  wear  ou  the  head  only  a  mitre  of 


UIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  87 

l'oth;  and  on  the  feet  only  a  pair  of  simple  sandals,  the  wholo 
Jreas  could  be  very  easily  provided,  without  the  smallest  assist- 
ance from  abroad.  Thus  nobody  wanted  a  wearer,  a  tailor,  a 
/uittcr,  or  a  *//<«//), //•</•.  A  good  housewife,  with  UK,  will  dis- 
pense with  the  services  of  a  baker;  but,  among  them,  the 
very  worst  could  look  no  further  than  her  kitchen  for  a  miller. 
The  common  tools,  also,  that  were  wanted  in  farming,  and 
most  of  the  common  articles  of  furniture  in  their  houses,  were 
so  simple,  that  a  man  of  usual  ingenuity  would  not  often 
think  of  betaking  himself  to  the  skill  of  another  to  have  them 
made.  Still,  there  were  always  some  things  that  needed 
oiore  than  common  art;  and,  accordingly,  the  country  wa? 
fever  entirely  without  men  who  employed  themselves  in  a  few 
of  the  more  difficult  trades.  There  were  carpenters,  hewen 
of  stone,  and  various  workmen  in  gold,  silver,  brass,  and  iron 
The  building  of  the  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness,  needed  sonu 
such  artists  of  considerable  skill.  At  that  time,  however, 
there  was  probably  a  greater  proportion  of  them  among  the 
people  than  afterwards ;  as,  no  doubt,  the  service  of  many 
had  been  employed  in  this  way  in  Egypt;  which  country  had 
already  made  very  great  progress  in  the  knowledge  of  various 
arts.  After  their  settlement  in  Canaan,  there  was  compara- 
tively little  demand  for  superior  skill.  The  artists,  accord- 
ingly, seem  to  have  held  no  very  high  character  for  ability  in 
their  several  trades.  Many  of  them,  probably,  only  turned 
their  attention  occasionally  to  such  business,  while  a  great 
part  of  their  time  was  spent  in  other  pursuits.  Hence,  when 
the  temple  was  to  be  built,  it  was  thought  necessary  to  procure 
masons  and  carpenters  from  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre.  (1  Chron. 
xiv.  1.) 

During  the  captivity,  many  of  the  Jews  found  themselves, 
in  a  great  measure  shut  out  from  their  old  manner  of  life, 
and  so  were  compelled  to  apply  themselves  to  arts  and  mer- 
chandise. And  as,  ever  after,  their  condition  was  less  settled 
than  before,  and  very  many  of  them  were  continually  scattered 
among  different  nations,  it  became  more  and  more  fashionable 
to  learn  trades,  as  the  best  means  of  supporting  themselves  in 
all  circumstances;  so  that,  at  last,  it  came  to  be  a  doctrine  of 
their  wise  men,  that  all  parents  were  bound  to  teach  theii 
children  some  kind  of  handicraft,  whether  they  expected  them 
cvei  to  use  it  or  not.  Accordingly,  we  find  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, that  Joseph  was  a  carpenter,  and  that  our  Savioui 
worked  at  the  same  trade.  So  I'aul,  also,  was  by  tradr  i. 
(eii'-iuaker,  though  his  birth  and  education  were  such  that  ht> 
lu*  not  probably  *»»r»>'*?:.  when  he  learned  the  busines>,  that  he 


88  JUBMCAL    ANTIQUITIES 

should  ever  be  called  upon  to  employ  his  skill  in  this  way  for 
a  support;  but  when  he  was  taught  to  count  all  things  but  loss 
for  Christ,  and  went  forth  from  city  to  city,  persecuted  and 
poor,  this  humble  employment  was  turned  to  most  serviceable 
account. 

Commerce  with  foreign  nations  was  not  forbidden  by  the 
law  of  Moses;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  not  encouraged 
in  the  smallest  degree.  The  reason  of  this  was,  that  the  Jews 
might  be  kept  as  far  as  possible  from  mingling  with  other  na 
tions,  so  as  to  avoid  the  danger  of  falling  into  their  idolatries, 
uii'l  to  remain  a  completely  separate  people,  until  the  wise 
[iiirj>oses  of  God  should  be  answered.  Traffic  among  them- 
selves, of  course,  was  carried  on,  upon  a  small  scale,  from  the 
earliest  times.  Hence,  we  hear  from  the  lirst,  of  »•/•///// /x  and 
>n'ii.<ti/--'x.  Solomon  ventured  to  go  far  beyond  this  limited 
u -age  -it'  trade.  He  carried  on  a  traffic  with  Egypt,  for  horses; 
and  sent  forth  a  number  of  vessels,  by  the  way  of  the  Red 
Sea,  to  the  distant  countries  of  Ophir  and  Tarshish,  which 
brought  him  in  amazing  wealth.  After  his  time,  the  Jews 
seem,  till  their  captivity,  to  have  kept  up  some  trade  with 
other  people,  though  it  fell  far  short  of  what  was  carried  on 
while  he  governed  the  nation. 

Wheat,  honey,  oil,  and  balm,  are  mentioned,  as  articles  that 
were  carried  out  of  the  country,  in  traffic  with  other  nations. 
(Ezek.  xxvii.  17.)  No  doubt,  the  wine,  also,  which  it  yielded 
so  abundantly,  of  the  best  quality,  was  to  some  considerable 
extent  turned  into  profit,  in  the  same  way.  (2  Chron.  ii.  10,  15.) 
In  return  for  these  and  other  enmmodities,  a  variety  of  foreign 
productions  were  introduced  into  the  land.  In  the  days  of 
David  and  Solomon,  the  principal  materials  for  the  building  of 
the  temple  were  thus  brought  from  the  kingdom  of  Tyre.  We 
read,  that  for  this  purpose,  cedar  and  fir  and  alnnig  trees  were 
hewed  on  Lebanon,  and  floated  on  great  rafts  to  Joppa.  (2  Chron. 
ii.  8,  16.)  Part  of  the  mountains  called  Lebanon  belonged  k 
Palestine  itself;  but  it  seems  that  the  most  valuable  timber  of 
the  kinds  just  mentioned,  grew  on  that  part  of  their  long  range 
ivhich  fell  within  the  territories  of  Hiram,  the  Tyrian  king. 
What  the  A/muy,  or  Al</>nn  trees  were,  cannot  now  lie  known 
Vast  quantities  of  gold,  silver,  brass,  iron,  and  all  manner  of 
precious  -tones,  were  collected  by  David  from  different  quarters, 
l-'n  in  Ophir  and  Tarshish,  the  ships  of  Solomon  brought  gold, 
silver,  pre<  ion  ^mug  wood,  ivory,  apes  and  peacocks 

The  commerce  with  Kgypt  brought  in  a  large  supply  of  horses 
and  linen  yarn;  while  great  companies  of  camels  came,  time 
•d'ter  time,  loaded  with  every  fragrant  spice,  from  the  farthest 


HIBL1CAL     1NTIQU1TIEK.  89 

regions  of  Arabia — such  as  cinnamon,  cassia,  frankincense,  and 
myrrh.  So  plentiful  was  the  introduction  of  foreign  treasures 
of  every  sort  into  the  country,  in  the  days  of  this  prosperous 
monarch,  that  he  is  said  to  have  made  "silver  to  be  in  Jerusa- 
lem as  stones,  and  cedars  as  the  sycamore  trees  that  were  in 
the  vnle,  for  abundance." 

It  would  be  very  desirable,  in  reading  the  Scriptures,  to 
have  a  correct  acquaintance  with  the  systems  of  measures, 
UY/V///AS  and  minx  which  regulated,  in  different  ages,  the  an- 
cient traffic  of  the  east.  On  this  point,  however,  our  know- 
ledge never  can  be  very  complete  or  satisfactory.  These  mat- 
ters have  ever  been  subject  to  gradual  alteration  and  change, 
and  antiquity  has  left  us  but  few  notices  that  can  help  us  to 
determine  any  thing  more  than  mere  names.  Models,  indeed, 
of  the  different  weights  and  measures,  as  they  were  fixed  in  the 
time  of  Moses,  were  laid  up  in  the  tabernacle,  and  afterwards 
in  the  temple,  to  be  kept  as  perpetual  standards,  under  the 
care  of  the  priests.  But  all  these  were  destroyed  when  the 
temple  was  burnt  the  first  time ;  and  after  that  period,  the 
whole  ancient  system  was  either  entirely  given  up,  or  at  least 
in  a  great  measure  modelled  anew,  from  the  systems  of  other 
nations.  Thus  the  most  ancient  weights  and  measures  men- 
tioned in  the  Old  Testament,  are  left  to  be  determined  from 
the  mere  slight  notices  of  Scripture  itself.  Those  mentioned 
in  the  New  Testament  are  not  attended  with  so  great  difficulty, 
though  by  no  means  free,  in  every  case,  from  uncertainty  of 
similar  sort. 

MKASURES  OF  LENGTH  were,  at  first,  taken  from  various 
parts  of  the  human  body.  So  far,  then,  as  we  can  determine 
these  parts,  we  may  make  a  probable  guess  about  the  length 
of  the  measures  :  yet  it  will  be  only  probable ;  because,  such 
measures,  though  suggested  at  first  by  the  parts  from  which 
they  are  named,  become  sometimes  gradually  settled  into  lengths 
that  vary  considerably  from  their  original  natural  standards. 
.Mi-as«ureB  of  this  sort  were  the  Digit,  the  Palm,  the  Span,  and 
the  Cubit. 

A  Diijit  was  the  breadth  of  a  man's  finger  or  thumb.  A 
I'dlm,  called  commonly  a  hand-breadth,  was  equal  to  four 
finger-breadths  or  digits.  A  Span  was  equal  to  the  distance 
between  the  top  of  the  thumb  and  the  top  of  the  little  finger, 
win -n  they  were  stretched  as  far  as  possible  apart;  it  was  as 
much  as  three  hand-breadths.  A  Cubit  was,  as  one  opinion 
rsupposes,  the  distance  between  the  elbow  and  the  wrist  of  a 
man's  arm ;  according  to  another,  it  was  the  length  of  the 
whole  arm,  or,  at  least,  from  the  elbow  to  the  knuckles.  It  if 


90  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

(.lain  that  tiro  cubits  are  mentioned  in  Scripture,  one 
ill. in  (lie  other,  as  much  :is  ;i  hand-breadth  ;  the  great  diflieui 
ty  is,  however,  to  ileterinine  which  of  these  is  the  oldest  :tmi 
most  e  niinioii.  •:  K/ek.  xl.  0.)  It  has  been,  ne\ertheles- 
pretty  generally  agreed  to  reckon  ;i  cuhit  about  a  foot  and  a 
half  of  our  measure,  so  as  to  consider  four  of  them  equal  to  the 
common  height  of  a  man.  K/.ekiel  mentions  a  measure  called 
a  rt'i-il :  it  was  equal  to  six  cubits  of  the  longer  kind. 

In  later  times,  other  measures  were  introduced.  The  Fur- 
I  ni  t I  was  borrowed  from  the  Greeks:  it  was  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  paces  in  length,  equal  to  the  eighth  part  of  a  Ro- 
man mile.  This  Mile,  which  is  the  one  intended  in  the  New 
Tes'aiiient.  being  equal  to  eight  furlongs,  was,  of  course,  made 
up  of  one  thousand  paces,  and  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  shorter  than  a  common  English  mile.  A  SeMa^-day't 
j< m rin  i/  was  about  seven  furlongs;  that  is,  a  little  less  than  a 
mile.  This  was  a  measure  invented  by  the  Jews,  to  determine 
precisely  how  far  a  man  might  go  on  the  Lord's  day,  without 
breaking  the  commandment.  (Ex.  xvi.  29.) 

HOLLOW  MKASTUKS  were  of  two  kinds,  as  they  were  used 
for  liquids  or  for  dry  articles.  Sometimes,  however,  the  same 
measure  was  used  for  both,  as  we  use  the  gallon  and  quart. 
For  dry  articles,  the  common  measures,  in  early  times,  were 
the  Cab,  the  Omer,  the  Scab,  the  Kphah.  and  the  Homer; 
for  liquids,  the  Hin,  the  Log,  the  Bath,  and  the  Homer,  seem 
to  have  been  the  most  important  in  use. 

The  Cab  was  une  of  the  smallest  measures,  though  it  is 
thought,  by  some  to  have  held  more  than  our  quart.  The  Omcr, 
we  are  told,  was  the  tenth  part  of  an  ephah,  and  must,  there- 
fore, have  contained  a  little  more  than  five  pints.  An  omer 
of  manna  was  the  allowance  of  daily  food  to  each  Israelite,  in 
the  wilderness.  The  Seah  held  somewhat  more  than  our  peck, 
and  was  the  third  part  of  an  ephah  It  is  called,  in  our  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible,  simply  a  measure;  thus  Sarah  is  requeued 
by- Abraham  to  take  three  measures  of  fine  meal  and  knead  it. 
(Creii.  xviii.  6;)  in  which  passage  this  particular  kind  of  mea 
mentioned  in  the  original.  The  same  measure  is  to  b. 
understood  in  Matt.  xiii.  83,  and  Luke  xiii.  21.  The  /;);/«//, 
contained  three  seahs,  or  about  three  pecks  and  three  pints  of 
our  measure.  We  are  told  that  it  was  equal  to  ten  omers 
(Ex.  xvi.  36.)  The  Homer  held  ten  ephahs,  or  about  ..iglii 
of  our  bushels.  It  was  the  largest  dry  measure.  The  (Jivek 
mm*ure.,  mentioned  in  Rev.  vi.  6,  held  only  a  quart. 

Measures  for  liquids  seem  to  have  been  rated,  at  first,  b\ 
Jie  number  of  egg-shell  quantities  which  they  could  bolo 


BIHLICAL     ANTIQUITIES.  !)1 

The  smal.est  was  perhaps  sufficient  to  contain  but  one  or  two 
such  quantities.  A  L<MJ  held  six  egg-shells  full.  A  I/in  was 
equal  to  twelve  logs,  or  as  much  as  seventy-two  times  the 
quantity  of  a  single  shell.  This  would  be  about  five  quarts 
of  our  measure.  A  Bath  was  equal  to  six  bins,  or  seven  and 
a  half  of  our  gallons.  The  H'snicr,  accordingly,  which  was 
used  for  liquid  as  well  as  for  dry  articles,  contained  ten  baths 
as  well  as  ten  cphahs,  and  was,  of  course,  something  larger 
than  one  of  our  hogsheads.  We  are  to  remember  that  the 
capacities  of  all  these  ancient  hollow  measures  are  determined 
only  according  to  probability.  There  is  by  far  too  little  infor- 
mation on  the  subject  to  settle  the  matter,  in  any  case,  with 
precise  and  solid  certainty. 

In  the  times  of  the  New  Testament,  a  Bushel  was  in  use. 
It  was  the  Roman  bushel,  which  contained  only  a  peck  in 
English  measure.  The  Firkin,  mentioned  in  the  account  of 
our  Saviour's  first  miracle,  was  a  Greek  measure,  and  held 
about  as  much  as  the  ancient  bath,  or  ephah;  that  is,  seven 
and  a  half  gallons.  (John  ii.  6.) 

WEIGHTS. — It  was  a  long  time  before  men  began  to  coin 
money,  as  is  common  now.  Gold  and  silver  were  very  early 
used  in  selling  and  buying ;  but  they  were  always  weighed^ 
like  other  articles  of  traffic ;  so  that  every  piece,  whatever  its 
shape  might  be,  was.  valued  just  according  to  its  purity  and 
its  weight  in  the  balance.  In  this  way,  we  read  that  Abra- 
ham irfi'/fi'-J  the  silver  which  he  paid  for  the  field  of  Machpe- 
lah.  (Gen.  xxiii.  16.)  While  this  method  continued,  it  was 
e< minion  for  such  as  were  employed  in  traffic  of  any  kind,  to 
carry  with  them  a  pair  of  balances,  and  different  weights,  in  a 
sort  of  pouch  or  bag.  These  weights  were  generally  stones. 
Hence,  the  meaning  of  those  laws  which  forbid  divers  weights 
in  the  bag,  or  unjust  balances,  becomes  clear.  (Lev.  xix.  36, 
Deut.  xxv.  13,  15,  Prov.  xvi.  11.)  Wicked  men  sometimes 
carried  a  different  set  of  weights  with  them:  one  class  was  to^ 
light,  and  with  these  they  sold;  the  other,  too  heavy,  ana 
wi'li  these  they  bought;  thus  defrauding  others  in  all  tlu-i 
dealings.  "Shall  I  count  them  pure,"  the  Almighty  says  i 
such,  "  with  the  wicked  balances,  and  with  the  bag  of  deceit- 
ful weights?"  (Mic.  vi.  11.) 

From  this  early  manner  of  using  silver  and  gold,  we  find 
that  all  the  terms  used  in  the  Old  Testament  to  signify  the 
value  of  different  sums  of  money,  are  merely  the  names  of  com- 
mon weights.  The  most  important  of  these  weights  was  *he 
Shefcfl  The  name  it.-df  signifies  simply  a  tr eight ;  whicb 
shows  that  it  was  verv  ancient  and  very  much  in  ua^.  \V» 


92  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

are  not  able  to  know  exactly  what  was  its  weight  b -fore  flu 
Wip-ivity;  for,  although  the  same  name  was  continued  long 
aftr  r,  even  down  to  tin;  time  of  Chri>l.  tliere  is  mueli  reason  tn 
beluve  that  the  shekel  of  early  times  weighed  less  than  the 
later  one.  This  last  weighed  nearly  half  an  ounce  ;  the  other, 
then-fore,  was  probably  a  good  deal  under  that  weight.  There 
was,  lie-ides  the  cumiiinii  shekel,  a  royal  one,  called  "the 
kinirs  shekel,"  which  seems  to  have  lieeii  cunsidend)ly  smaller 
than  the  other.  A  Gt'ruli  was  the  twentieth  part  of  a  shekel. 
(Ex.  xxx.  13.)  There  was  also  a  weight  called  the  lt<  kah, 
or  half-shekel.  A  I'mml  is  supposed  to  have  been  equal  to 
sixty  shekels,  and  a  '/'"/< ///,  to  three  thousand.  By  these 
different  weights,  both  silver  and  gold  were  counted,  and  so 
valued  according  to  their  purity  ami  their  scarcity,  as  it  was 
greater  or  less  at  different  times.  A  shekel  of  silver,  accord- 
ing to  the  later  estimation  of  that  weight  among  the  Jews, 
would  be  about  equal  in  value  to  our  half-dollars;  and  so, 
before  the  captivity,  must  have  been,  in  all  probability,  consi- 
derably below  that  rate. 

Co)  vs. — After  the  captivity,  the  Jews  became  acquainted 
with  soiiix,  or  stamped  money.  The  most  ancient  coin  of 
which  we  have  any  knowledge,  was  the  A//-/<7,-,  a  Persian 
coin,  stamped  by  royal  authority  :  the  Drams  mentioned  in 
Kzra  and  Nehemiah,  were  this  kind  of  money.  The  Jews  be- 
gan to  coin  money  for  themselves,  in  the  time  of  the  Macca- 
bees, not  quite  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ.  A 
Greek  coin,  called  a  Stater,  was  then  in  common  u-e.  and  was 
supposed  to  be  about  equal  in  weight  to  the  early  shekel. 
Accordingly,  when  the  Jews  struck  off  their  coin,  called  after 
the  ancient  weight,  the  X//r/,v/,  it  was  made  just  as  heavy  as 
the  stater,  though,  as  we  have  said,  it  is  most  probable  that 
the  old  shekel  was  considerably  lighter.  The  new  shekels  were 
coined  both  in  silver  and  in  gold,  and  some  of  them  remain  to 
this  day.  The  "j>i>i;  ,,f  )n<ni>i/,"  which  Peter  found  in  the 
mouth  of  a  fish,  was  one  of  the  staters  mentioned  above,  equal 
in  value  to  a  shekel  of  that  time,  and  so  just  enough  to  pay 
the  tribute  money  for  two  persons.  (Matt.  xvii.  '21 ',  Ex.  xxx 
13.)  The  fourth  part  of  a  stater  was  equal  to  a  Drachma, 
among  the  Grecian,  and  to  a  Denarius,  or  penny,  among  the 
Koman  coins.  This  last,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  had 
stamped  upon  it  the  head  of  C;i--ar.  Matt.  xxii.  20.)  In 
value,  it  was  about  twelve  and  a  half  cents  of  our  money. 
The  Roman  Furililmj  was  in  value  one-tenth  of  their  penny; 
%nd  not  quite  equal  to  one  cent  and  a  half  among  us.  It  was 
used  to  signify  the  smallest  value,  as  the  price  of  a  couplo  of 


HIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  93 

sparrows.  (]Iatt.  x.  29.)  A  smaller  piece  of  money,  equal 
only  to  a  fourth  part  of  the  last,  is  sometimes  mentioned  under 
the  same  name.  (Matt.  v.  ^0.)  The  smallest  of  all  was  the 
Mite,  two  of  them  being  e<|iial  Imt  to  one  farthing  of  the  least 
kind  :  this  was  the  widow's  offering.  (Mark  xii.  4'2.) 

Silver  and  gold,  anciently,  were  far  more  scarce  than  they 
ire  now :  and,  of  course,  the  same  weight  would  be  far  more 
/aluable.  This  ought  to  be  remembered,  in  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures. 


SECTION   IV. 

LEARNED    PROFESSIONS. 

those  who  find  employment  in  such  active  pursuits 
as  have  been  already  mentioned,  there  is,  in  our  country,  a 
considerable  class  of  men,  whose  lives  are  spent  more  or  less 
in  study,  or  in  the  practice  of  what  are  called  learned  profes- 
sions. There  are  many  interests  of  society  that  cannot  be 
"ijrhtlv  secured,  without  the  direction  of  knowledge  and 


Srrili«. 


01  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

education,  su»  h  as  persons  engaged  in  the  common  occupa 
tions  of  labour  and  business  can  never  be  expected  to  acquire. 
It  is  neeosarv,  therefore,  that  some  should  devote  their  whole 
time  and  attention  to  the  cultivation  of  such  knowledge,  for 
•  he  benefit  of  tin-  rest.  Hence  arise  various  orders  of  men, 
whose  business  it  is  to  watch  over  the  interests  of  morality 
i nd  religion,  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  government,  to  explain 
•.he  principles  of  law  and  justice,  to  practise  the  healing  art  in 
she  continual  oaie  of  life  and  health,  or  »•»  direct  and  superin 
end  the  great  concern  of  general  education,  through  all  \V 
stages,  from  the  lowest  up  to  the  highest  improvement.  It  is 
natural  to  inquire  how  far,  and  under  what  form,  such  pro- 
fessional employments  were  found  among  the  Jews.  Who  in 
this  nation  of  farmers,  were  the  Ministers  of  religion,  the 
Judges,  the  Lawyers,  the  Physicians,  and  the  Schoolmasters? 
In  early  tiir.es,  nearly  all  these  orders  of  men,  as  far  a* 
hueh  orders  were  distinctly  acknowledged  in  society,  were 
t'ound  in  the  single  tribe  of  Levi.  The  tribe  of  Simeon  aro 
ftlso  said  by  the  Jews  to  have  been  much  employed  as  school 
masters,  on  account  of  the  scantiness  and  scattered  situation 
of  their  inheritance.  The  tribe  of  Levi,  by  the  law  of  Moses, 
had  nc  inheritance  among  the  others,  in  the  division  of  tho 
land.  It  was  chosen  from  among  the  rest,  especially  for  the 
service  of  the  sanctuary,  and  was  to  be  supported  entirely  by 
contributions  from  the  whole  nation.  To  this  tribe  belonged 
«he  family  of  the  Priests,  and  the  whole  care  of  the  tabernacle 
and  temple  was  committed  exclusively  to  its  members  Their 
business,  however,  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  tempta. 
They  instructed  the  people  in  the  knowledge  of  the  law,  through- 
out the  land  ;  not  indeed  by  preaching  week  after  week,  as  our 
ministers  now  do,  but  by  scattering  themselves  in  different 
posts  over  the  whole  country  ;  by  writing  and  circulating 
copies  of  tho  Scripture?;  by  explaining  their  meaning  as  they 
had  opportunity,  or  v  ere  consulted  by  those  around  them; 
and  by  educating  the  young.  At  the  end  of  every  seven 
years,  they  were  bound  to  read  over  the  whole  law,  in  the 
hearing  of  all  the  people,  (Deut.  xxxi.  10 — 13;)  and  it  wae 
their  duty  to  be  n  ;yly  at  all  other  times,  by  its  diligent  study, 
to  answer  the  inquiries  which  others  might  make  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religion.  In  those  times,  when  printing  was  altogether 
unknown  copies  of  the  sacred  volume  were  necessarily  scarce, 
and  ham  -o  be  procured.  It  was,  therefore,  a  most  important 
service  which  the  Levites  rendered  to  society,  by  writing 
Midi  copies  in  the  most  correct  manner,  and  thus  securing 
'.he  truth  of  God  to  the  people.  There  vere,  i»rob-ibly,  but 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  9-'' 

lew,  besides  thic  tribe,  who  were  able  to  write,  as  there  was 
hut  little  occasion,  in  the  manners  of  that  age,  for  them  to 
study  the  art.  Hence,  not  only  the  sacred  records,  but  all 
othei  kinds  of  writing,  naturally  fell  to  the  care  of  the  Levites, 
among  whom,  at  h-a.-t  a  considerable  portion  were  always  skil- 
ful in  the  use  of  the  pen.  In  this  way,  they  came  to  be  of 
irreat  importance  in  the  business  of  government,  as  secretaries, 
and  keepers  of  the  Genealogical  Tables.  Those  of  them  who 
were  chiefly  employed  in  writing  were  called  ScriLes.  (2  Chron. 
xxxiv.  13.) 

Tin-  same  tribe  furnished  the  regular  Judges  of  the  nation. 
The  extraordinary  officers  under  that  name,  whom  God  raised 
up  at  different  times,  to  deliver  and  govern  the  country,  were 
taken,  indeed,  without  regard  to  any  such  distinction.  But  it 
was  expressly  provided,  that  the  common  and  established  ad- 
ministration of  justice  should  be  under  the  care  of  this  tribe. 
The  priests,  the  sons  of  Levi,  were  the  supreme  judges  of  the 
land,  by  whose  word  "every  controversy  and  every  stroke" 
were  to  be  tried.  (Deut.  xxi.  5,  Ezek.  xliv.  24.)  So,  also,  the 
inferior  judges,  appointed  for  all  the  cities  through  the  coun- 
try, seem  generally  to  have  been  Levites.  Thus  we  read  of 
six  thousand  who  were  "officers  and  judges,"  in  the  days  of 
David.  (1  Chron.  xxiii.  4.)  As  the  only  law  of  the  land  was 
the  law  of  God's  word,  and  their  whole  character  required  from 
them  the  continual  and  diligent  study  of  that  law,  it  was  to  be 
expected  that  they  would  be  better  qualified  than  others  to 
explain  it  in  judgment,  and  so,  of  course,  most  suitable  to  be 
intrusted  with  that  care. 

We  must  suppose,  too,  that  the  chief  attention  which  learn- 
ing of  any  kind  received  in  the  nation,  came  from  this  same 
tribe.  The  Levites  had  leisure  and  opportunity  far  more  than 
others,  and  their  minds  were  necessarily  more  turned  to  study 
and  science.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  the  learning  of  the 
country  was  pretty  generally  confined  to  their  body. 

We  have  no  reason,  indeed,  to  believe  that  the  various 
sciences  of  the  times  were  pursued,  even  among  the  Levites, 
to  any  very  great  extent;  except,  perhaps,  in  the  days  of 
David  and  Solomon :  yet,  that  some  attention  was  bestowed 
on  most,  if  not  all,  is  manifest  from  several  occasional  notices 
of  such  kinds  of  knowledge,  which  may  be  gathered  from  tho 
Scriptures.  We  read  of  Physicians,  and  of  healing  liseases; 
the  science  of  Mnli< •///»•„  therefore,  was  in  some  measure  studied 
and  understood;  and  there  was  a  class  of  men,  though  it  was 
probably  very  small,  whose  business  it  wa.s  to  practise  this  im- 
portant art.  We  discover,  also,  some  acquaintance  with  Arith- 


96  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

metic,  Surveying,  Gi'o</rnj>/ty,  and  Astronomy 
Knowledge,  too,  to  some  extent,  wa>  n.-<v«-;iry  in  certain  ein- 
ployments,  which  wen:  common  aiming  them,  Hut  it  was 
especially  to  the  care  of  hi>t»ry,  and  •MMalogMftl  annals,  and 
to  the  science  of  morals,  that  the  national  taste  was  turned.  It 
nev«T  was  the  design  of  the  Almighty  Governor,  who  had  sepa- 
rated them  to  himself  out  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  that 
they  should  stand  eminently  distinguished  in  the  world  for  pro- 
found and  rare  learning  of  mere  human  kind.  Their  wisdom, 
as  well  as  their  glory,  was  to  spring  from  the  simple  power  of 
heavenly  truth,  that  its  excellency  might  be  of  God,  and  not  of 
man.  It  was  left,  therefore,  for  other  kingdoms  t ?>  explore  the 
deep  recesses  of  science,  and  make  full  experiment  how  far  mere 
unassisted  knowledge,  such  as  men  are  mo.-t  apt  to  admire,  could 
secure  the  true  happiness  and  dignity  of  life.  Habylon  and 
Egypt  vied  with  each  other  in  the  variety  and  depth  of  their 
learning.  The  whole  world  was  tilled  with  the  reputation  of 
each.  Wise  men  travelled  many  hundred  miles,  from  distant 
regions,  to  listen  to  the  wisdom  of  their  philosophers,  and  enrich 
themselves  from  their  treasures  of  knowledge.  "  To  be  learned 
in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,"  as  Moses  is  said  to  have 
bee.n,  was  to  stand  on  the  highest  summit  of  science.  (Acts 
vii.  22.)  But  after  all,  how  empty  was  the  pride  of  these 
countries,  in  comparison  with  the  excellency  of  Israel  and  Ju- 
dah !  Babylon  bowed  down  in  adoration  before  the  sun  and 
the  moon,  and  the  whole  starry  host  of  heaven,  and  worshipped 
idol  gods  of  stone  and  wood.  Egypt  sunk  lower  still,  and 
abased  her  wisdom  in  the  worship  of  bulls  and  goats  and  cats, 
and  reptiles  of  vilest  kind :  yea,  her  very  leeks  and  onions  were 
changed  into  gods.  Thus,  "in  the  wisdom  of  God,  the  world 
by  its  wii*doui  knew  not  God,"  and  fell  into  every  abominable 
vice;  while,  without  any  remarkable  advantages  of  science,  the 
nation  of  the  Jews  retained  the  truest  knowledge  of  the  Holy 
One,  and  the  soundest  principles  of  morality;  such  knowledge 
and  such  principled  as,  to  this  day,  cannot  be  convicted  of  error. 
How  could  this  wonderful  difference  be,  except  by  the  force  of 
instruction  more  than  human?  The  word  of  God,  though  it 
had  little  show  of  wisdom  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  was  full  of 
light  and  power.  While  they  attended  to  its  truth,  the,  Jews 
were,  in  all  their  simplicity,  wiser  far  than  the  wisest  nations 
of  earth. 

The  Prophets  formed  a  very  small  class  of  society,  but  one 
of  principal  importance,  not  only  so  far  as  religion  was  con- 
cerned, but  also,  by  reason  of  their  continual  connection  with 
'.he  affairs  of  j^overament,  as  advisers  and  reprovers  of  those 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUiriES.  97 

who  managed  them.  They  were  not  conrined  to  any  particular 
uribi-.  ni>r  admitted  to  their  office  by  birth,  but  raised  up  for 
their  business  from  different  families.  They  had,  of  course; 
much  influence  through  the  nation,  as  th,y  were  the  extraor 
diuary  ministers  of  God,  and  proclaimed  his  will  in  tho  mes- 
sages which  they  delivered.  As  early  as  the  time  of  Samuel, 
schools  were  established  for  the  preparatory  education  of  such 
young  men  a.s  sought  this  sacred  dignity.  They  were  here 
instructed,  under  the  care  of  some  aged  prophet,  in  those  things 
which  might  fit  them  in  the  best  manner  to  discharge  the  duties 
of  the  office,  should  God  be  pleased  to  bestow  upon  them  the 
spirit  of  prophecy  in  time  to  come.  The  students  in  these 
schools  were  called  Sous  of  the  Prophets,  and  their  teachers 
were  styled  Father*.  (2  Kings  ii.  3,  5,  7,  12,  15.) 

The  name  of  Scribe  was  first  given  to  su.  H  as  excelled  in  the 
use  of  the  pen ;  but  because  these  were  gen  -rally  distinguished 
likewise  in  other  branches  of  knowledge,  it  came,  in  time,  to 
mean  simply  a  learned  man.  And  as  the  chief  part  of  learn- 
ing, among  the  Jews,  was  concerned  with  the  sacred  books  of 
Scripture,  the  word  signified  especially  one,  who  was  skilled  in 
the  law  of  God;  one  whose  business  it  was,  not  merely  to  pro- 
vide correct  copies  of  its  volume,  but  also  to  explain  its  meaning. 
Thus  Ezra  is  called  "a  ready  scribe  of  the  law  of  Moses."  (Ez. 
vii.  6.)  In  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  the  Scribes  formed  quite 
a  considerable  class  in  society.  Many  of  them  belonged  to  the 
Sanhedrim,  or  chief  council,  and  are,  therefore,  frequently  men- 
tioned in  the  New  Testament,  with  the  Elders  and  Chief- 
I'rit-sts.  The  Doctors  of  the  Laic,  and  the  Lawyers,  of  whom 
we  hear,  were  only  the  same  class  of  persons  under  different 
names,  (Luke  v.  17,  x.  25;)  these  names  they  received  from 
their  business  of  teaching  and  interpreting  the  Law.  Their 
opinion  on  this  subject  had  great  weight  among  the  people. 
They  were  said  to  "  sit  in  Moses'  seat,"  because  they  undertook 
to  explain  the  whole  meaning  of  Moses  and  the  other  sacred 
writers,  (Matt,  xxiii.  2;)  and  were,  accordingly,  consulted  in 
all  cases  of  doubt  or  uncertainty,  about  the  truth  of  Scripture. 
(Matt.  ii.  4.)  Hence  we  learn  the  meaning  of  those  questions: 
"  Why  then  say  the  Scribes  that  Elias  must  first  come?"  and 
''  How  say  the  Scribes  that  Christ  is  the  son  of  David?"  (Matt 
xvii.  10,  Mark  xii.  35.)  Our  Saviour  applies  the  same  word 
to  a  well-instructed  minister  of  the  gospel :  "  Every  scribe 
which  is  instructed  unto  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  is  like  unto  a 
man  that  is  a  householder,  which  bringeth  forth  out  of  his  trea- 
sure things  new  and  old."  (Matt.  xiii.  52.) 

It  was  common  to  address  these  wise  men  by  the  honorary 
9 


U8  ItlBLICAL    ANTIQUI  '1  IE  8. 

title  of  Itntsbi,  which  means  Great,  or  Master.  Tuis  title  w*» 
introduced  not  long  before  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  as  wa> 
also  the  still  higher  one,  R<il>lx,ni,  which  is  to  say  ,)/</.•«/</ 
with  more  emphasis,  or  rather,  My  i/rt<:t  Master.  (John  xx.  16.) 
In  the  Jewish  schools  of  learning,  the  title  of  llablwmi  wu 
never  bestowed  on  more  than  seven  persons,  who  wore  all 
peculiarly  distinguished  for  their  rank  and  wisdom  flu 
name  of  liabbi  was  given  to  every  one  who  went  thiougb  a 
regular  course  of  education,  under  the  instruction  of  soue 
wise  doctor  of  the  law,  and  was  judged  fit  to  become  the 
teacher  of  others.  Celebrated  doi-tur.-  wnv  ranvtod  to  fre- 
quently, by  a  number  of  scholars.  These  listened  with  tin1 
profouudest  attention  to  their  words,  and  treated  them  with 
the  most  respectful  reverence.  It  seems  to  have  been  com- 
mon for  them  to  take  their  seats  much  lower  than  their  mas- 
ter, placing  thf.mselves  before  him,  around  his  feet.  So  Paul, 
we  are  told,  was  brought  up,  or  educated,  at  the  feet  of  Gama- 
liel, who  was  the  most  Ir-mird  and  honourable  doctor  of  th;U 
age.  (Acts  xxii.  3.)  Teachers  were  sometimes,  according  to 
u  most  ancient  custom  already  noticed,  called  fat/tern,  and  thru 
scholars,  or  disciple*,  styled  their  simx,  or  children.  The  ex- 
hortation to  "call  no  man  Father  upon  earth,"  had  respect  to 
this  use  of  the  term,  and  means  that  it  is  not  proper  to  give 
ourselves  up  to  the  authority  of  any  leader  or  head  of  a  sect,  or 
t«;  depend  on  any  mere  human  teacher  as  an  unerring  guide  in 
matters  of  religion  and  truth,  as  the  Jewish  disciples  did  toward 
their  masters.  (Matt,  xxiii.  9.)  The  usage  mentioned  is  also 
referred  t  in  that  question  put  to  the  Pharisees:  "If  I  by 
Beelzebub  cast  out  devils,  by  whom  do  your  children  (or  disci- 
ples) cast  them  out?"  (Matt.  xii.  27.) 


CHAPTER  V. 
DRESS,   MEALS,   AND  SOCIAL  INTERCOURSE 

SECTION  I. 

OF    DRESS. 

THE  art  of  making  cloth  is  very  ancient :  no  doubt,  long  be- 
fbre  the  flood,  spinning  and  weaving  of  some  sort  were  known 
The  fiVst  covering  which  our  original  parents  used,  w;t-.  formed 
from  leaves  of  the  fig  tree.  God  afterward  instructed  thc:u  to 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  9ft 

amploy  for  this  end  the  skins  of  animals.  Soon,  it  is  probable, 
they  learned  to  manufacture  the  long  hair  of  some  beasts  into  a 
rude  kind  of  cloth,  and  then  gradually  brought  the  discovery  to 
greater  degrees  of  perfection,  by  the  use  of  wool,  cotton,  and 
tiax.  In  the  time  of  Abraham,  the  art  seems  to  have  been 
well  understood. 

Spinning  and  weaving  were  the  business  of  women.  Thus 
in  the  wilderness,  as  we  are  told,  "all  the  women  that  were 
wio«  hearted  did  spin  with  their  hands,  and  brought  what  they 
had  spun,  boih  of  blue  and  of  purple,  of  scarlet  and  of  fine 
linon,"  for  the  service  of  the  sacred  tabernacle  which  was  to  be 
built.  Very  early,  also,  they  carried  the  art  of  embroidery  and 
ornamental  needle-work  to  a  very  considerable  degree  of  per- 
fection. (Judg.  v.  30.)  The  art  of  colouring  cloth  was  also 
well  understood.  Sometimes  a  most  splendid  white  was  im- 
parted to  it,  by  a  peculiar  skill  of  the  fullers.  This  colour  waa 
preferred  to  every  other  on  festival  days.  On  such  ocacsions, 
the  rich  and  noble  robed  themselves  in  garments  of  white 
cotton.  It  was  also  customary  to  be  clothed  in  white  as  a  mark 
of  honour,  (Estk.  viii.  15  j)  and  the  colour  has  always  been  a 
natural  emblem  of  purity  and  joy.  In  allusion  to  these  ideas, 
our  Saviour  promises  his  people,  that  they  "  shall  be  clothed 
in  white  raiment,"  and  "  walk  with  him  in  white,"  in  his 
heavenly  kingdom.  (Rev.  iii.  4,  5.)  Angels  always  appeared 
in  white  ;  and  when  our  Redeemer  was  transfigured,  on  the 
mount,  into  some  resemblance  of  the  glory  of  heaven,  his 
raiment  became  "exceeding  white  as  snow;  so  as  no  fuller  on 
earth  can  white  them."  (Mark  ix.  3.)  Kings  and  princes, 
when  they  appeared  in  state,  were  generally  .arrayed  in  purple. 
This  was  a  very  bright  colour,  supplied  from  the  blood  of  a 
certain  shell-fish,  as  it  was  found  in  a  single  white  vein  near  the 
animal's  throat.  By  reason  of  its  great  scarcity,  it  was  con- 
sidered more  precious  than  gold.  The  rich  man  in  the  gospel, 
whose  awful  end  the  Saviour  describes,  "  was  clothed  in  pur- 
ple." The  scarlet  colour  was  also  much  esteemed.  It  was 
taken  from  certain  insects,  or  their  eggs,  found  on  a  particular 
kind  of  oak.  The  same  colour  is  sometimes  called  crimxm. 
This  also  was  worn  as  a  mark  of  royalty  and  power.  In  cruel 
miK-kery  and  insult,  the  Roman  soldiers  put  a  crown  of  thorns 
ripen  the  head  of  our  Redeemer,  and  a  reed  in  his  right  hand, 
to  represent  a"  tu-<'f>fn  ,  and  arrayed  him  in  a  scarlet  robe,  as  if 
tin  y  would  honour  him  lib'  a  kin^,  bowing  the  knee  before  him 
•ml  crving,  Hail,  king  of  the  Jews!  (Matt,  xxvii.  -.8,  '29.; 
Mark  and  John  called  the  robe  a  purple  one,  because  thai 


was  used  in  i  general  sense,  for  any  bright  red  colour  • 


a  p 
,  fo 


100  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

and  often,  especially,  was  applied  to  a  royal  roho  of  such  :i  hue, 
inasmuch  as  it  \v;is  itself,  by  way  of  distinction,  the  royal 
colour. 

While  the  ric'i  adorned  themselves  with  every  cosily  ma- 
terial, the  lower  ranks  contented  themselves  with  clothing  of 
(he  plainest  aad  cheapest  kind.  Even  coarse  hair-cloth  wa- 
not  entirely  laid  aside,  long  after  the  general  use  of  wool  and 
flax.  Cloth,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  frequently  made 
from  the  hair  of  goats  and  camels,  for  the  covering  of  tents. 
As  late  as  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  we  hear  of  -<m  ,  Mich  cloth 
used  for  garments :  John  the  Baptist,  it  is  said,  "  had  his  rai- 
ment of  camel's  hair."  Elijah,  whom  John  resembled  so 
much,  seems  in  his  day  to  have  worn  the  same  kind  of  stuff. 
He  is  described  as  "  a  hairy  man,  girt  with  a  girdle  of  leather 
about  his  loins;"  that  is,  one  dressed  in  hair,  or  hair-cloth,  after 
the  same  style  in  which  the  Baptist  appeared.  (2  Kings  5  8.) 
We  have  reason  to  believe,  indeed,  that  anciently  it  was  very 
common  for  prophets  to  be  clothed  in  such  raiment,  as  we  leary, 
from  one  place,  that  false  prophets  were  in  the  habit  of  wear- 
ing "a  rough  garment  to  deceive."  (Zech.  xiii.  4.)  John 
came,  therefore,  in  this  respect,  precisely  in  the  severe  and  self- 
denying  fashion  of  an  ancient  prophet ;  ft  r  such  in  fact  he  was, 
a  greater  than  whom  never  before  had  been.  The  soft  dotltimj 
of  king's  houses  formed  a  great  contrast  with  the  rugged  ap- 
parel of  this  holy  man.  (Matt.  xi.  8.)  This  same  sort  of  cloth 
was  put  on  by  such  as  were  deeply  afflicted,  or  wanted  to  ex- 
press great  sorrow;  for  the  AW- /.•<•/>///<  of  which  we  hear  on 
such  occasions,  was  nothing  else.  It  was  formed  int<>  a  gar- 
ment like  a  .sick,  with  merely  holes  for  the  anus,  which  war 
thrown  over  the  mourner,  and  reached  down  below  the  ki. 
In  this  dn — ,  the  afflicted  individual  frequently  sit  down  in 
the  midst  •>,  ashes,  having  the  head  all  covered  over  with  the 
same.  As  this  cloth  was  made  most  commonly  out  of  goat's 
hair,  it  was.  of  course,  of  a  dark  or  a  black  colour;  hence  those 
images  of  covering  the  heavens  "  with  blackness  and  .«//  /.v/o//<," 
and  of  the  sun  becoming  "black  as  m<-k>-l»th  «f  Imir."  (Isa. 
1  3,  Rev.  vi.  12.) 

TIIK  Ti'xic. — The  most  simple,  and  probably  the  most 
ancient  garment,  was  the  Tunic.  This  was  worn  next  to  the 
*kin,  and  fitted  tolerably  close  round  the  liody.  It  had  arm- 
holes,  and  sometimes  sleeves,  and  reached  down,  like  a  long 
shirt,  below  the  knees.  It  was  commonly  made  of  linen, 
though  freijiiently,  also,  of  other  cloth.  Round  the  waist  it 
was  bound  with  a  girdle.  When  a  man  had  nothing  nun  i 
him  but  this  under  garment,  it  was  common  to  fr"iy  he  \vui 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQIITIE8. 


101 


Thus  we  arc  told  that  Isaiah 
walked  naked  and  barefoot ;  Saul  pro- 
phesied naked  before  Samuel ;  Peter 
was  naked  in  the  ship.  (Isa.  xx.  2 — 4, 
1  Sara.  xix.  24,  John  xxi.  7.)  In  time, 
the  tunic  grew  to  be  larger  and  longer, 
hanging  more  loosely  round  the  body, 
and  reaching  as  low  down  as  the  ankles; 
K>  that,  in  later  ages,  a  shirt  of  wool 
was  sometimes  worn  under  it.  In  the 
English  Bible,  it  is  called  a  coat.  That 
which  our  Saviour  wore,  "  was  without 
seam,  woven  from  the  top  throughout." 
(John  xix.  23.) 

THE  UPPER  GARMENT. — The  gar- 
ment immediately  over  the  tunic  was  merely  a  piece  of  cloth, 
nearly  square,  and  several  feet  in  length  and  breadth.  This 
was  wrapped  round  the  body  or  tied  over  the  shoulders.  The 
two  corners,  which  were  drawn  over  the  shoulders  and  hung 
down  in  front,  were  called  its  s/cirte,  or  wings.  It  was  so  large 
and  loose  that  it  was  often  used  for  carrying  burdens;  as  when 
it  is  said,  one  found  in  the  fields  a  wild  vine,  and  gathered  his 
lap  full  of  its  fruit.  (2  Kings  iv.  39.)  So,  also,  the  Israelites 
carried  their  kneading  troughs,  when  they  went  out  of  Egypt, 
"  bound  up  in  their  clothes,  upon  their  shoulders,"  (Ex.  xii. 
34 ;)  and  when  we  read  in  the  New  Testament  of  "  good 
measure,  given  into  the  bosom"  we  should  think  of  the  laigc 
fold  of  such  a  garment,  gathered  round 
the  breast.  (Luke  vi.  38.)  The  common 
people  wrapped  themselves,  at  night,  in 
this  blanket-like  covering,  and  wanted  no 
other  for  sleeping.  On  this  account,  it 
was  unlawful  to  keep  it  as  a  pledge  after 
sun  set :  "  If  thou  at  all  take  thy  neigh- 
bour's raiment  to  pledge,  thou  shalt  de- 
liver it  unto  him  by  that  the  sun  goeth 
down ;  for  that  is  his  covering  only ;  it  is 
raiment  for  the  skin  :  wherein  shall  he 
sleep  ?"  (Ex.  xxii.  26,  27.)  Hence,  in 
the  description  of  oppressive  rich  men,  it 
is  said,  "  They  cause  the  naked  to  lodge 
without  clothing,  that  they  have  no  cover- 
ing in  the  cold."  (Job  xxiv.  7.)  Upon  the  four  corners  of  thi* 
garment,  the  law  required  that  then;  should  be  fringes,  together 
with  a  blue  riband,  to  remind  the  people  of  all  the  command 

*• 


102  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

iiienta  of  the  lord  their  God.  (Num.  xv.  88.)  That  they 
IM'  notice  1  i if  men,  the  Pharisees  were  MXRUtomed  to  h»V«  thes* 
religion-  siirns  remarkably  large  :  "They  made  broad  their  phy- 
la •)  Ties,  an  1  enlarged  the  Inn •> ///•>•  nf  tluir  </<trnt'tt(.<."  ^Mart 
xxiii.  ;">.)  In  our  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  this  article  of 
t\r<--  i-  railed  a  cloak,  or  simply  a/yar»ir/i/,  and  sometimes  a' 
vj)j)n-  i/'innriit.  Such  were  the  garments  which  the  peopi,- 
spread  in  the  way  before  our  Lord,  as  he  entered  into  Jern-a- 
lein.  (  Matt.  xxi.  8.)  It  was  common  to  lay  it  aside,  when  per- 
sons engaged  in  labour  or  exercise  that  needed  much  activity,  a.- 
it  served  only  to  hinder  them  :  this  was  done  by  our  Savfjui. 
when  he  washed  the  feet  of  his  disciples,  and  by  Peter,  vrheu 
he  was  employed  in  fishing.  (John  xiii.  4,  xxi.  7.)  It  ,vas  ii< 
this  way,  also,  that  king  David  un<-»ri-ri-t1  himself,  \vneii  he 
"danced  before  the  Lord  with  all  his  might,"  girded  merely 
with  a  linen  ephod.  (2  Sam.  vi.  14,  '20.)  The  custom  may  ex- 
plain that  exhortation  of  our  Lord  :  "  Neither  let  him  which  if 
in  the  field  return  back  to  take  his  clothes."  (.Matt  xxiv.  18.) 
TIIK  GIRDLE. — To  remedy  the  inconvenience  which  arose 
from  the  loose  nature  of  their  principal  garments,  the  (Unlit- 
became  a  in •»(  important  and  necessary  part  of  dress.  There 
•vere  two  sorts  of  girdles :  the  one,  a  plain  and  simple  band  of 
leather,  about  six  inches  broad,  fa<- 
ened  round  the  body  with  clasps;  the 
other,  more  costly,  wrought  out  of  finer 
materials,  such  as  cotton  or  flax,  not 
quite  so  wide,  and  sometimes  long 
enough  to  encircle  the  wearer  two  or 
three  times.  It  was  common,  when  in 
the  house  or  unemployed,  to  lay  the 
girdle  aside;  but  when  business  of  an 
activ  kind  was  to  }>e  done,  it  was  all- 
imp'T'ant  that  it  should  be  put  on, 
•  r  .  lawn  tij.ht  round  the  loins,  if  it 
were  on' \  tdaekly  fastened;  otherwise, 
a  man's  limbs  would  be  much  hin- 
dered with  the  loose  drapery  of  hisdre.-s, 
and  if  ho  wore  his  u;  per  garm  -nt,  it  would  almost  necessarily 
fall  of!'  every  minute.  Hence,  the  common  phrase  to  tfinl  i//i 
ffie  filing,  means  to  get  ready  f»r  action;  and.  >o  familiar  was 
its  usage  in  this  sense,  tli:it  it  came  to  be  applied  even  to  the 
mind,  or  soul,  where  it  could  mean  nothing  else  than  to  cast  off 
negligence  and  sloth,  and  summon  the  spirit  to  an  attitude  of 
6rm  resolution,  or  readiness  for  the  discharge  of  duty.  Thus 
the  Almighty  calls  uoou  Job:  "Gird  up  now  thy  loins  like  a 


1UBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  10'J 

•nan,  for  I  will  demand  of  thee,  and  answer  thou  me."  (Job 
vxxviii.  3.)  And  so  our  Saviour  exhorts  us  all  to  have  our 
loins  girded  about,  and  our  light-;  burning,  that  we  may  be 
leady  for  his  coming,  (Luke  xii.  35.)  The  image  is  still  more 
bold  in  another  place:  "Gird  up  the  loins  of  your  mind,  be 
sober,  and  hope  to  the  end."  (1  Pet.  i.  13.)  It  was  especially 
necessary  for  every  soldier  to  wear  a  girdle,  and  to  gird  himself 
well  when  he  entered  into  battle.  Hence,  the  Christian,  who 
is  often  compared  to  a  soldier,  is  required  to  "have  his  loins 
girt  about  with  truth;"  that  is,  with  sincerity  and  soundness  in 
religion :  without  this  girdle,  he  can  have  no  security  or  success 
in  his  warfare.  (Eph.  vi.  14.)  To  gird  the  loins,  signifies  also 
to  strengthen,  as  it  always  gave  more  freedom  for  the  use  of 
strength,  and  was  the  sign  for  calling  it  into  action :  so,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  loose  the  girdle  means  to  take  away  strength  and 
power.  Thus  God  girded  Cyrus,  and  loosed  the  loins  of  kings 
before  him.  (Isa.  xlv.  1,  5.)  So  Jehovah  himself  is  girded 
with  strength.  (Ps.  xciii.  1.)  The  girdle  was  used  also  for 
carrying  money  and  other  small  articles.  For  this  purpose,  it 
was  folded  double  and  sewed  along  the  edges,  like  a  long  flat 
purse.  It  was  a  very  safe  and  convenient  place  to  put  every 
thing  that  we  are  in  the  habit  of  crowding  into  our  various 
pockets.  Such  were  the  purses  into  which  the  apostles  were 
not  allowed  to  put  gold,  silver,  or  brass,  when  sent  out  to 
preach.  (Matt.  x.  9.)  When  a  sword  was  carried,  it  was  fast- 
ened to  the  same  belt.  Secretaries,  and  writers  of  every  kind, 
were  accustomed  to  have  an  ink-horn  fixed  upon  it.  (Ezek.  ix.  2.) 

It  seems  to  have  been  common  to  keep  two  girdles ;  one  for 
the  tunic,  and  the  other  for  the  upper  garment.  The  first  was 
more  habitually  worn,  whenever  a  man  went  out;  the  other 
was  often  dispensed  with,  either  because  the  arms  were  at  lei- 
sure to  take  i-are  of  the  outer  piece  of  clothing,  or  because  it 
was  laid  aside  entirely.  Thus  when  Peter  was  awakened  by 
the  angel  in  prison,  he  was  commanded  first  to  gird  himself,  and 
then  to  cast  his  upper  garment  round  him,  without  any  mention 
of  a  second  girdle.  (Acts  xii.  8.)  At  other  times,  however, 
this  also  was  called  into  service ;  or,  perhaps,  in  such  cases,  the 
girdle  of  the  tunic  was  merely  unclasped,  and  bound  round  the 
outside,  so  as  to  secure  both  garments  together. 

Si>me  other  peculiar  kinds  of  clothing  were  worn  at  certain 
periods  by  some  individuals.  The  rich  and  fashionable  ap- 
peared not  only  in  robes  of  finer  quality  than  common,  but  also 
occasionally  put  on  garments  of  different  name  and  form,  which 
belonged  not  to  the  general  usage  of  the  country.  Sometimes, 
too,  the  aged  or  infirm  needed,  in  winter,  other  articles  of 


104 


ANTIQUITIES. 


dress;  and  in  later  times,  it  was  not  urn ommon  to  find  in  the 
land,  various  fashions  of  foreign  apparel,  introduced  by  stranger* 
from  other  nations.  The  Jews,  however,  were  not,  in  common, 
much  disposed  to  alter,  in  this  matter  or  in  any  other,  the  an- 
cient customs  of  their  country. 

SACRED  GAKMKNTS. — The  garments  of  the  priests  were  par- 
ticularly determined  by  God  himself.  I'nder  the  tunic,  or 
coat,  they  were  required  to  wear  a  pair  of  linen  breeches.  (Ex. 
xxviii.  42.)  And  over  it,  the  High-Priest  was  clad  with  the 
Bacred  robe  and  an  ephod.  The  robe  was  like  a  long  shirt, 
having  no  sleeves,  but  only  holes  for  the  arms,  with  small  hand- 
some binding  round  the  opening  for  the  neck.  It  reached  down 
to  the  ankles,  and  upon  the  hem  of  its  lower  part  were  seventy- 
two  little  golden  bells,  with  pomegranates  of  needle  work  be- 
tween them,  round  about.  These  were  for  causing  a  sound 
when  he  went  into  the  holy  place,  and  when  he  came  out,  lest 
he  should  die.  The  eph<xl  consisted  of  two  parts,  one  of  which 
was  hung  over  the  hack,  and  the  other  over  the  breast;  both 
pieces  being  united  by  a  clasp  or  buckle  on  each  shoulder,  and 
secured  by  a  "curious  girdle,  round  about,  under  the  arms." 
fEx.  xxviii.)  Garments,  exactly  like  those  of  the  High-Priest, 
for  materials,  colour,  and  form,  might  not  be  worn  by  any  other 
person;  nor  was  he  himself  allowed  to  wear  them,  except  in 
the  solemn  service  of  his  office.  Still,  articles  of  dress  resem- 
bling the  sacred  robe  and  ephod,  and  called  by  the  same  names, 
were  sometimes  used  by  others.  (1  (Miron.  xv.  27.) 

SANDALS. — Sandals  were  generally  used  for  the  feet.  The 
tandal  was  a  mere  sole  of  wood  or  hide,  covering  the  bottom 
of  the  foot,  and  fastened  with  lea- 
ther thongs,  or  straps.  When  any 
person  was  about  to  enter  into  a 
house,  it  was  customary  always  to 
take  them  oft',  an,]  go  in  with  barn 
feet.  To  unloose  the  thongs  on  such 
occasions,  and  to  tie  them  again 
when  the  sandals  were  to  be  put  on, 
was  the  lni:-ine>s  <>('  the  lowest  ser- 
vants. Thus  John  the  Baptist,  to 
express  how  little  notice  he  deserved, 
in  comparison  with  Him  whose  way 
he  came  to  prepare,  exclaimed  in 
his  preaching:  "There  cometh  one 
mightier  than  I,  after  me,  the  latch- 
et  of  whose  shoes  T  am  not  wo-thy 
to  stoop  down  and  unloose.  '  (Mark 


BTBMCAL    ANTIQUITIES.  105 

i.  1.)  As  no  stocking  wen-  worn,  the  feet  became,  of  course, 
dusty  and  soiled  :  it  was  common,  therefore,  when  coining  into 
a  house,  to  have  them  immediately  washed.  In  receiving  a 
guest,  one  of  the  first  acts  of  politeness  and  kindness  was  to 
supply  him  with  water  for  this  purpose.  So  in  the  earliest  times, 
we  find,  in  the  hospitality  of  Abraham  and  others,  this  circum- 
stance repeatedly  mentioned.  In  his  entertainment  of  the  angels, 
the  venerable  patriarch  proposed  this  refreshment  at  once.  "  Let 
a  little  water,  I  pray  you,  be  fetched,  and  wash  your  feet,  and 
rest  yourselves  under  this  tree."  We  see  the  same  thing  in  La- 
ban's  house,  and  afterward  in  Joseph's  house.  (Gen.  xxiv.  32, 
xliii.  24.)  The  same  custom  continued  to  the  latest  times  of  the 
nation.  Our  Saviour  referred  to  it  in  his  reproof  of  the  Pharisee 
Simon:  "I  entered  into  thine  house;  thou  gavest  me  no  water 
for  my  feet."  (Luke  vii.  44.)  It  was  a  business  of  sen-ants 
to  wash  the  feet  of  others,  as  well  as  to  unloose  their  sandals; 
and  hence  our  Lord  did  it  for  his  disciples,  to  teach  them  a  les- 
son of  humility  and  kindness  toward  each  other,  though  Peter 
thought  such  condescension  too  great  to  be  allowed.  (John  xiii. 
1 — 16.)-  As  it  was  utterly  contrary  to  decency  and  good  man- 
ners to  wear  sandals  in  a  house,  as  much  so  as  among  us  it  is 
to  keep  a  hat  on  the  head  in  a  parlour,  so  it  came  to  be  consi- 
dered an  expression  of  reverence  toward  God,  to  pull  them  off 
on  sacred  ground,  or  when  drawing  near  to  the  Almighty  in 
acts  of  worship.  (Ex.  iii.  5,  Josh.  v.  15.)  On  this  account, 
the  priests  were  accustomed  to  attend  to  all  the  service  of  the 
sanctuary  with  their  feet  bare,  though  the  law  said  nothing  on 
the  subject;  and  much  injury  to  health  arose,  at  times,  from 
standing  thus  exposed  on  the  cold,  damp  pavement. 

In  later  ages,  shoes  of  a  certain  kind,  reaching  up  round  the 
ankle,  came  to  be  used.  These  were  considered,  however,  as 
more  proper  for  women  than  for  men.  Fashionable  ladies 
Bometraes  wore  them,  made  with  touch  ornament  and  expense. 
The  mass  of  the  people  used  only  sandals ;  and  these  are  almost 
always  to  be  understood,  when  we  read  of  shoes  in  the  English 
Bible. 

Tin,  MITRE. — The  covering  for  the  head  was  formed  of 
cloth,  fitted  round  it  frequently  with  several  folds  and  in  varioua 
forms,  as  it  was  worn  by  different  classes  of  persons.  It  was 
called  a  mifre,  or  a  bonnet.  The  mitres  of  the  priests  wero 
higher  than  common.  Princes  also  wore  them  high.  In  late- 
times,  very  elegant  and  costly  head-dresses  came  into  fashion, 
especially  among  the  women. 

IIIK  VKIL. — The  veil  was  an  important  article  in  the  dres* 
if  women  In  v^ry  ;arly  times,  indeed,  it  does  not  appeal 


lOfi  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIKS. 

that  it  was  considered  by  any  means  essential  that  every  r»«- 
spectacle  female  should  wear  such  a  covering,  even  in  the  pre- 
sence of  strangers;  as  we  may  learn  from  the  history  of  Sa-Mii 
and  Rebecca  and  Rachel.  But  in  later  ages  it  was  deemed 
altogether  improper  for  a  woman  of  any  rank  in  life  to  be  seen 
in  public  without  a  veil.  The  apostle  Paul,  in  his  first  epistle 
to  the  Corinthian  church,  reproved  the  notion  that  in  Chris- 
tian assemblies  this  usage  of  the  times  might  be  neglected 
(1  Cor.  xi.  13 — 16.)  Veils  were  of  different  kinds:  some- 
times, made  to  cover  the  whole  person,  from  head  to  foot; 
sometimes,  concealing  merely  the  face  and  breast  ;  and  at 
other  times,  hanging  downward  in  front  only  from  the  nos"  or 
the  eyes;  while  a  fourth  sort,  starting  like  a  eap  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  forehead,  spread  over  t!ie  top  of  the  head,  and  fell 
down  some  distance  behind.  The  veil  was  the  chief  di>tinction 
between  the  dress  of  a  woman  and  that  of  a  man.  In  other 
respects  the  difference  was  small :  the  garments  of  females 
were  generally  of  a  somewhat  finer  quality,  and  of  a  greater 
length,  than  those  of  men;  but  as  to  general  form  and  fashion, 
appear  to  have  resembled  them  altogether.  In  the  manage- 
ment of  the  hair,  however,  and  in  the  use  of  ornaments  ami 
trinkets,  there  was,  of  course,  as  we  shall  immediately  see,  a 
very  considerable  difference. 

TIIK  HAIR. — The  hair  of  the  Jews,  as  is  the  case  in  eastern 
countries  generally,  was  almost  universally  of  a  black  colour. 
By  the  men,  it  was  always  worn  short,  except  sometimes,  per- 
hap.-.  l>y  delicate  and  vain  persons  like  Absalom,  or  by  such  as 
were  under  the  Nazarite  vow.  (Numb.  vi.  5.)  It  was  common 
;o  anoint  the  hair,  especially  on  festival  occasions.  The  liquid 
>int  ment  used  for  this  purpose  was  made  out  of  the  best  oil 
»f  olives,  mixed  with  spices.  (Ps.  xxiii.  5,  Luke  vii.  40.)  In 
conformity  with  this  custom,  Mary 
poured  ointment  on  our  Saviour's 
head,  as  he  sat  at  meat  in  the  house 
of  Simon  the  leper;  but  to  show  her 
very  great  regard  for  his  person,  she 
used  ointment  far  more  costly  than  the 
common  kind — "ointment  of  spike- 
nard, very  precious."  (Mark  xiv.  8.> 
At  the  same  time,  to  express  still  more 
affection  and  profound  respect,  she 
anointed  also  his  feet,  and  wiped  them 
with  the  hair  of  her  head.  (John  xii 
3.)  Females,  as  in  all  other  countries, 
wore  their  hair  long.  The  apostle  Paul 


BIBLICA1     ANTIQUITIES.  107 

teaches  us  that  this  usage  ought  never  to  be  abandoned  :  "  Doth 
not  even  nature  itself  teach  you,  that  if  a  man  have  long  hair, 
it  is  a  shame  unto  him?  But  if  a  woman  have  long  hair,  it  i- 
a  glory  to  her;  for  her  hair  is  given  her  for  a  covering.'' 
(1  Cor.  xi.  14,  15.)  The  same  apostle,  however,  was  alto- 
gether  opposed  to  the  fashion  of  dressing  up  this  simple  orua 
uient  with  an  artificial  glory  of  braided  tresses  and  gold  an*4 
costly  gems  :  on  this  subject,  Peter  also  thought  it  proper  t» 
hsave  his  inspired  admonition.  (1  Tim.  ii.  9,  1  Pet.  iii.  3/. 
Such  vain  decorations  were  very  common  among  the  JewisL 
ludies. 

TIIK  BEARD. — Among  the  men,  much  more  importance  was 
attached  to  the  beard.  Ancient  nations  generally  agreed  in 
opinion  on  this  subject.  In  their  estimation,  a  long,  heavy 
beard,  hanging  down  over  the  breast,  was  an  ornament  of  pecu- 
culiar  excellency,  and  added  no  little  to  the  dignity  and  re- 
spectability of  any  man's  person.  To  show  any  contempt  to- 
wards it,  by  plucking  it,  or  catching  hold  of  it,  or  touching  it 
without  good  reason,  was  a -most  grievous  insult;  such  as,  in 
modern  times,  a  man  of  honour,  according  to  the  worldly 
meaning  of  the  phrase,  would  consider  abundant  cause  for  a 
challenge  and  a  duel  forthwith.  Nobody  was  allowed  to  touch 
it,  except  for  the  purjtose  of  respectfully  and  affectionately 
kissing  it,  as  intimate  friends  were  accustomed  to  do,  when  they 
met.  It  was,  therefore,  most  base  deceit,  when  Joab  "  took 
Amasa  by  the  beard,  with  the  right  hand,  to  kiss  him,"  (or  to 
kiss  it,)  and  then  smote  him  with  a  sword,  in  the  very  act  of 
feigned  friendship.  (2  Sam.  xx.  9.)  To  shave  off  half  the 
beard,  as  Hanun  did  to  the  messengers  of  David,  was  a  provo- 
cation of  the  most  insolent  and  outrageous  kind ;  and  such  a 
disgrace  did  these  unhappy  men  feel  it  to  be,  that  they  could 
not  bear  to  show  their  faces  in  Jerusalem,  till  a  now  growth  of 
hair  had  covered  the  nakedness  of  their  chins.  (2  Sam.  x.  4; 
5.)  To  express  great  grief,  however,  it  was  common  to  tear 
out  part  of  the  beard,  and  sometimes  to  cut  it  off;  at  other 
times,  sorrow  was  signified  by  neglecting  to  trim  and  dress  ii, 
and  letting  it  grow  without  any  care.  (2  Sam.  xix.  24. )  lu 
the  East,  the  same  notions  about  the  beard  still  continue.  Tht 
Arabians  consider  it  more  disgraceful  to  have  it  cut  off,  than  it 
is  with  us  to  be  publicly  whipped.  They  admire  and  envy 
those  who  have  fine  beards.  "  Pray,  do  but  see,"  they  cry. 
"  that  beard ;  the  very  sight  of  it  would  persuade  any  one 
that  he  to  whom  it  belongs  is  an  honest  man  !"  "  For  shame 
of  your  beard !"  they  exclaim,  when  they  would  reprove  a  per- 
s  )ii  for  acting  or  speaking  wrong.  It  is  a  common  form  •»< 


108  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

oath :  "  By  your  beard ;"  or,  "  By  the  life  of  your  beard.' 
And  to  express  the  be.st  wishes  for  another's  welfare,  they  want 
no  more  significant  phrase  than  "  May  God  preserve  yoiu 
blessed  beard  !"  This  comprehends  every  tiling. 

ORNAMKNTS. — A  Jewish  gentleman  frequently  carried  a 
staff  for  ornament.  He  also  wore  a  seal,  hung  from  his  neck 
over  the  breast,  with  his  name  engraven  upon  it,  and  sometimes, 
on  a  finger  of  his  rijrht  hand,  there  was  seen  a  handsome  ring 
;Luke  xv.  22,  James  ii.  2.)  In  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  tn. 
Phaiisees  wore,  for  religious  show,  broad 
Phylacteries.  These  were  merely  four 
small  strips  of  parchment,  with  a  verse  or 
two  of  the  law  written  on  each,  can-fully 
secured  in  a  little  case,  or  bag  of  leather. 
They  were  worn  especially  at  times  of 
prayer;  one  upon  the  forehead  and  an- 
other upon  the  left  wrist.  It  was  a  com- 
mon opinion,  that  they  had  the  power 
of  charms,  to  protect  the  wearer  from 
harm,  or,  at  least,  from  al)  the  malice 
of  evil  spirits.  The  custom  arose  from  a  wrong  interpreta- 
tion of  the  command  :  "  Thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign  upon 
thy  hands,  and  they  shall  be  as  frontlets  between  thine  eyes." 
(Deut.  vi.  8.)  The  later  Jews  imagined  these  things  were  to 
be  done  literally. 

Time  would  fail  us  to  tell  of  all  the  various  ornaments  which 
the  ladies  contrived,  to  decorate  their  persons  and  attract  ad- 
miration: the  "beautiful  crowns  for  the  head  ;"  the  costly  gems, 
or  rings  of  silver  and  gold,  that  hung 
\^-\^  ^j^.  from  the  r:"'<  "iid  flittered  mi  the  II»M-; 
\0  ,  ^fcJik  the  "rows  of  jewel-"  t'ur  the  cheeks;  the 
necklaces  of  pearl,  emerald,  or  golden 
chain-work,  that  fell  far  down  over  the 
bosom ;  the  bracelets  for  the  arms ;  the 
riigs  for  the  fingers;  and  the  tinkling 
oiuaments  for  the  feet.  ( Isa.  iii.  1  s — '24, 
ttzck.  xvi.  10  —  13,  Song  i.  10.)  With  all  this  tiuery  to 
arrange  and  contemplate,  a  Minvr  became  absolutely  \\< 
ry.  But  in  those  days,  there  was  no  glass;  and,  of  course, 
looking-glasses  like  ours  were  unknown.  Mirrors  were  made 
of  molten  brass,  polished  so  as  to  reflect  a  tolerably  clear 
image.  They  were  not  hung  up  in  chambers,  as  with  us,  but 
fitted  with  a  neat  handle,  and  carried  in  the  hand,  or  else  hung 
upon  the  girdle,  or  by  a  chain  from  the  neck.  As  they  were 
made  small,  they  wen  iv-t  much  more  inconvenient  than  » 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  100 

neavy  fan.  Such  were  the  "women's  looking-glasses,"  which 
were  used  in  the  wilderness  for  making  the  brazen  laver.  (Ex 
ixxviii.  8.)  In  later  times,  they  were  frequently  made  of  steel 
Tlie  apostle  compares  the  knowledge  of  heavenly  things  which 
may  be  gained  on  earth,  to  the  faint  images  which  these  imper- 
fect mirrors  reflected :  "  Now  we  see  through  a  glass  (or  by 
means  of  a  mirror)  darkly;  but  then  face  to  face."  (1  Cor. 
xiii.  12.)  It  was  considered  a  great  ornament  to  have  the  eye- 
lids tinged  with  a  deep  black  stain.  The  material  used  for 
this  purpose,  down  to  the  present  day,  in  eastern  countries,  is  a 
rich  lead  ore,  pounded  into  powder  extremely  fine.  When  it  is 
to  be  used,  a  small  instrument,  about  the  thickness  of  a  quill, 
is  dipped  into  it,  and  then  drawn  through  the  eyelids,  over  the 
ball  of  the  eye.  This  is  probably  what  is  meant  by  rending 
the  face  with  paint.  (Jer.  iv.  30.)  Such  a  jetty  black  colour 
on  the  lids  sets  off  the  whiteness  of  the  eye  to  much  advantage, 
and  at  the  same  time  causes  it  to  appear  larger  and  more  ex- 
pressive. It  makes  the  lashes  also,  in  appearance,  long  and 
beautiful.  To  give  grace  and  dignity  to  the  eye  brows,  they 
were  probably  painted  too.  According  to  the  fashionable  style 
of  the  times,  Jezebel  painted  her  face,  when  she  dressed  herself 
for  the  coming  of  Jehu.  (2  Kings  ix.  30.) 

WARDROBES. — From  the  general  character  of  the  Jewish 
dress,  loose  and  large,  we  may  easily  perceive  that  the  apparel 
of  one  person  might,  without  any  inconvenience,  be  worn  by 
another.  With  us,  it  is  a  rare  thing  if  ojie  man's  suit  of 
clothes  will  so  exactly  fit  another  that  lie  can  wear  them  with- 
out some  awkward  appearance ;  but  with  the  Jews,  it  mattered 
littl»  for  whom  a  suit  was  first  made:  it  might  pass  to  a  dozen 
of  owners  without  the  smallest  trouble.  There  was  no  difficulty 
of  this  sort,  therefore,  in  the  way,  when  Rebecca  wanted  to 
clothe  her  favourite  son  in  the  "goodly  raiment  of  Esau,"  or 
when  Jonathan  stripped  himself  of  his  robe  and  garments,  and 
put  them  on  his  friend  David.  (Gen.  xxvii.  15, 1  Sam.  xviii.  4.) 
From  this  circumstance,  it  came  to  pass  that  the  rich  frequently 
supplied  themselves  with  a  great  many  changes  of  raiment;  so 
that  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  their  property  was  found  in 
their  great  wardrobes.  These  gannents  they  never  expected  to 
use  themselves;  but  they  served,  like  some  men's  fine  libraries 
of  untarnished  books,  to  display  their  wealth  and  taste;  and 
then,  while  they  occasionally  made  presents  out  of  them  to 
their  friends,  they  might  hand  them  down  to  their  cnildren 
and  heirs,  from  generation  t<>  .<:< •n.-raiidn,  with  all  their  original 
value.  There  was  no  danger  of  any  new  fashion  coming  for- 
ward and  spoiling  the  inheritance,  by  throwing  a  whimsical 

10 


110  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIK-v 

trrangeness  over  its  ancient  dresses,  as  must  inevitably  take 
I'l.-ice  in  our  country;  tin-  e.i-teru  niaiiiiers  never  allowed  such 
t'.mrastic  changes.  To  tins  custom  of  multiplying  garments, 
as  one  way  of  laying  up  treasures,  our  Lord  refers,  in  that  ad- 
monition :  "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  on  earth, 
where  moth 'Mid  rust  doth  corrupt."  (Matt.  vi.  10.)  So  als/ 
tli  •  apostle  .James:  "<lo  to,  now,  ye  rich  men;  weep  and  howl 
for  your  miseries  that  shall  come  upon  you:  your  gold  and 
silver  is  cankered;  your  garments  are  mnflt-mf> -«."  (Jainos 
v.  2,  3.  Sec  also  Acts  xx.  33.)  Job  describes  such  also  in 
his  day :  they  "  heap  up  silver  as  the  dust,  and  prepare  raiment 
a«$  the  clay."  (Job  xxvii.  16.)  Princes  and  great  men  were 
accustomed  to  give  a  change  of  raiment  to  those  whom  they 
wished  to  honour.  Thus  Joseph  gave  changes  of  raiment  to 
all  his  brothers,  and  to  Benjamin  no  less  than  five.  (den. 
xlv  22.  See  also  Esth.  viii.  15.)  It  was  not  uncommon  for 
kings  or  wealthy  noblemen,  when  they  made  a  feast,  to  fur- 
nish every  guest  with  a  suitable  garment  for  the  occasion.  It 
was  thus  Joseph  treated  his  brethren.  Especially  was  this  the 
case  at  marriage  festivals.  (Matt.  xxii.  11,  1*2.)  Not  imme- 
diately to  put  on  a  garment  thus  presented,  vas  great  disre- 
spect to  the  master  of  the  house. 


SECTION  II. 

MEALS    AND    ENTERTAINMENTS. 

HAVING  attended  to  the  general  manner  in  which  the  Jews 
were  accustomed  to  provide  for  the  dress  and  ornanvnt  of  the 
body,  let  us  next  consider  their  peculiar  usages  in  the  matter 
of  supplying  it  with  the  refreshment  of  f<><><L 

In  the  chapter  on  dwellings,  we  have  already  given  a  short 
account  of  the  utensils  most  important  to  be  noticed,  which 
were  used  for  the  preparation  of  food  and  the  convenience  of 
eating.  The  mill,  the  oven,  the  table,  and  the  conches,  have 
been  described;  we  need  not,  therefore,  say  any  thing  about 
them  in  this  place.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  enter  into  a  detail 
of  the  several  modes  of  cookery ;  a  single  glance  into  the  kitchen 
will  be  quite  enough.  Vegetables  and  flesh  were  prepared  there 
in  various  ways,  but  still  the  general  methods  of  rendering  them 
fit  for  the  table  did  not  differ  materially  from  those  which  are 
uow  common.  Baking,  boiling,  roasting,  and  frying,  were  all 
employed  to  give  variety  to  the  social  feast,  as  they  continually 
are  among  ourselves ;  only,  in  our  age  and  country,  we  are  fur 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  Ill 

aishea,  by  the  improvements  of  art,  with  greater  convenience* 
for  the  several  purposes  than  were  enjoyed  in  those  days.  At 
it  was  not  easy,  in  that  country,  to  keep  flesh  any  time  without 
its  being  spoiled,  it  was  common  to  cook  at  once  the  wholft  of  an 
animal,  immediately  after  it  was  killed.  Thus  Abraham  dressed 
for  his  three  guests  an  entire  calf,  and  set  it  before  them. 

The  Jews,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  were  not  in  the  habit 
'f  sitting  down  at  a  breakfast  table  early  in  the  morning,  as  1.1 
somrnon  with  us.  It  was  not  considered  proper  to  take  a  regu- 
lar meal  till  after  the  public  prayers  of  the  morning  were  over. 
This  was  not  till  about  ten  o'clock  in-the  forenoon.  On  Sab- 
baths and  sacred  feast-days,  it  was  the  custom  not  to  taste  a 
particle  of  solid  food  or  drink  before  that  time  ;  and  if,  on  other 
days,  any  thing  was  eaten,  it  was  only  some  small  refreshment 
of  the  lightest  kind.  So  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  the 
disciples  were  charged  with  drunkenness,  Peter  considered  it  a 
completely  satisfactory  reply,  that  it  was  then  but  the  third 
hour  of  the  day,  or  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning;  an  hour,  at 
least,  before  the  time  when  any  person  thought  of  tasting  wine. 
('Acts  ii.  15.)*  Between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  of  our  time, 
dinner  was  taken.  It  was,  however,  but  a  slight  meal,  made 
up  chiefly  of  fruit,  milk,  cheese,  and  such  simple  articles  of 
food.  The  most  important  meal  was  supper;  for,  through  the 
middle  of  the  day,  in  their  warm  climate,  there  was  generally 
little  inclination  to  indulge  in  the  pleasures  of  the  table.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  find  that  great  entertainments  and  feasts  were 
always  provided  in  the  evening;  they  were  Suppers.  Thus 
we  are  told,  that  "  Herod  on  his  birth-day  made  a  supper  to 
his  lords,  high  captains,  and  chief  estates  of  Galilee."  (Mark 
vi.  21.)  When  Jesus  visited  Lazarus  and  his  sisters,  "they 
made  him  a  supper."  (John  xii.  2.)  So  in  the  parable,  "a 
certain  man  made  a  great  svpper."  (Luke  xiv.  16.)  A  sup- 
per was  of  the  same  importance  among  the  Jews,  that  a  din- 
ner is  among  us ;  the  most  notable  meal,  at  which  (however 
slight  might  be  the  preparation  for  other  meals)  some  substan- 
tial provision  was  expected.  Whenever,  therefore,  it  was 
wanted  to  provide  for  the  table  with  more  than  common  liber- 
ality, by  way  of  self-indulgence  or  kindness  to  others,  the  time 
naturally  selected  for  the  purpose  was  the  evening,  and  the 
manner  of  entertainment,  a  supper.  Hence,  such  occasions  ag 
with  us  call  for  special  dinners,  were  honoured  among  thorn 
with  special  suppers.  In  conformity  with  the  custom  of  the 

*  See  the  Jewish  manner  of  reckoning  hours,  in  the  ei'gntb 
tor  of  this  volume. 


112  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

nation,  the  sacred  feast  of  the  Passover  was  celebrated  in  the 
evening.  And  because  it  was  during  the  celebration  of  one 
of  these  religious  suppers,  that  our  Lord  instituted  the  second 
Christian  sacrament,  which  was  to  come  in  the  room  of  that 
ancient  ordinance,  this,  also,  has  ever  since  been  called  the 
Lord's  8u)>/>fr,  although  it  is  now  very  properly  taken  at  an 
entirely  different  time. 

Before  every  meal,  it  was  customary  to  wash  the  hands,  aa 
well  as  after  eating.  Thus  we  are  informed  by  the  sacred 
writer:  "The  Pharisees  and  all  the  Jews,  except  they  wash 
their  hands  oft,  eat  not,  holding  the  tradition  of  the  elders." 
(Mark  vii.  3,  4.)  So  great  was  the  stress  laid  upon  this  cere- 
mony, that  they  found  much  fault  with  the  disciples  of  our 
Saviour,  when  they  observed  them  neglecting  it:  "  Why  do  thy 
disciples  transgress  the  tradition  of  the  elders?  for  they  wash 
not  their  hands  when  they  eat  bread."  (Matt.  xv.  2.)  As  these 
washings  (as  well  as  others  which  they  employed  superstitiously, 
for  the  purification  of  cups,  pots,  bra/.eii  vessels,  tables,  and 
such  things)  were  so  continually  called  for,  it  was  common  to 
have  vessels  always  standing  in  a  convenient  place,  with  water 
in  them,  which  might  be  drawn  out  arid  used  in  this  way, 
whenever  wanted.  Such  were  the  six  large  water-pots  of  stono 
that  stood  in  the  house  where  our  Saviour  attended  the  mar- 
riage in  Caua  of  Galilee :  they  were  set  there,  we  are  told,  after 
the  numner  of  the  j»t  rifi/iinj  »f  th<-  Jrint;  that  is,  according  to 
the  plan  common  among  the  Jews,  for  convenience  of  washing. 
(John  ii.  6.)  One  good  reason  for  washing  before  and  after 
meals,  was,  that  they  used  their  hands  •Itogether  in  taking 
their  victuals:  cleanliness,  in  such  a  case,  could  not  well  be  too 
carefully  observed.  But  when  the  custom  was  turned  into  a 
superstitious  obligation,  and  insisted  upon  as  a  solemn  matter 
of  conscience  and  religious  duty,  it  became  an  ignorant,  childish, 
and  unlawful  tradition.  In  washing,  water  was  sometimes 
poured  lightly  over  the  hands,  and  at  other  times  the  hands 
were  dipped  into  it. 

Before  and  after  each  meal,  a  short  prayer  or  tribute  of 
thanks  was  offered  up  to  God.  This  was,  no  doubt,  a  sacred 
custom,  handed  down  from  the  earliest  times.  Our  Saviour  al- 
ways taught  his  disciples  the  duty  of  looking  up,  with  such  an 
^ct  of  worship,  to  the  great  Author  of  every  good  gift,  by  his 
own  example.  When  he  fed  the  multitudes  by  miracle,  lu- 
first  lifted  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and  blessed  and  gave  thanks. 
(Matt  xiv.  It),  xv.  36.)  The  apostle  refers  to  the  same  duty, 
and  teaches  us  that  every  meal  is  unsanctih'ed  where  God  is  not 
heartily  and  humbly  remembered:  ''Every  creature  of  God  w 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


113 


good,  and  nothing  to  be  refused,  if  it  be  received  with  thanks 
giving ;  for  it  is  sanctified  by  the  word  of  God  and  prayer.*1 
(1  Tim.  iv.  4,  5.) 

Knives  and  forks  were  not  used  in  eating.  The  meat  was 
sarved  into  pieces  of  convenient  size,  beforehand.  Every  per- 
son helped  himself  with  his  right  hand.  In  early  times,  each 
had  his  own  portion  separate  from  the  rest,  as  we  may  see  in 
the  account  which  is  given  of  the  entertainment  of  Joseph's 
brethren  in  Egypt;  but  at  a  later  period,  it  became  customary 
to  cat  from  common  dishes.  When  food  of  a  liquid  sort,  like 
broth,  was  on  the  table,  each  person  broke  his  bread  into  morsels, 
and  dipped  it,  with  his  fingers,  into  the  dish.  (Ruth  ii.  14.)  Such 
was  the  sap  which  our  Lord  dipped  and  handed  to  Judas.  (John 
xiii.  26.)  Drink  was  handed  to  each,  in  separate  bowls,  or 
cups;  hence,  a  man's  cup  is  used  figuratively  to  mean  his  lot 
or  destiny.  (Ps.  xi.  6,  xxiii.  5.)  The  Saviour's  cup  was  ths 
awful  wrath  of  the  Almighty  which  he  drank  in  the  room  of 
guilty  men.  (Matt.  xxvi.  39.; 

Social  feasts  were  common  from  the  earliest  times.  By  the 
law  of  Moses,  every  farmer  was  required  to  use  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  fruits  of  his  land,  each  year,  in  this  way.  The 
tithe,  or  a  tenth  part  of  his  corn  and  his  wine  and  his  oil, 
with  the  firstlings  of  his  flocks  and  his  herds,  after  a  like  por- 
tion had  been  set  apart  for  the  Levites,  were  to  be  conscrrar.-il 
to  God,  and  eaten  in  a  sacred  feast  before  Him,  with  thankful 
ness  and  joy.  In  this  feast,  servants  and  strangers,  anil  .IT 


J4  BIBLICAI     ANTIQUITIES. 

pl.ans  «ind  widows,  and  the  Levite  without  inheritance  in  the 
land,  were  to  be  made  free  partakers:  "  Thou  must  cat  thorn 
before  the  Lord  thy  God,  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy  <J»d 
shall  choose  ;  thou,  and  thy  son,  and  thy  daughter,  and  thy 
man-servant,  and  thy  maid-servant,  and  the  Levite  that  is  within 
thy  gates :  and  thou  shalt  rejoice  before  the  Lord  thy  Hod,  in 
all  that  thou  puttest  thine  hand  unto."  (Deut.  xii.  17,  1*,  xiv. 
'2'2-  —  29.)  These  were  properly  religious  festivals,  excellently 
adapted  to  promote  a  grateful  sense  of  God's  favours,  and  to 
diffuse  the  kindly  feeling  of  friendship  through  all  the  various 
classes  of  society.  But  besides  these,  it  was  usual,  as  in  every 
country  of  the  world,  to  make  other  feasts;  as  on  occasions  of 
domestic  joy,  such  as  a  marriage  or  a  birth-day,  or  for  the  sake 
of  showing  respect  to  friends  ami  cherishing  social  intercourse, 
or  merely  to  gratify  the  spirit  of  worldly  pride  by  a  vain  pa- 
rade of  kindness  and  hospitality.  At  such  times,  the  guests 
wen-  invited  by  servants  to  come  at  the  appointed  season. 
When  they  arrived,  they  were  received  with  the  greatest  atten- 
tion. They  were  arranged  around  the  table,  by  the  master  of 
the  house,  who  generally  took  care  to  place  such  as  he  consi- 
dered the  most  honourable  of  the  company,  in  what  were  ac- 
counted the  chief  seats.  The  table  was  supplied  in  the  most 
plentiful  manner.  Servants  stood  ready  to  attend  to  tin- 
slightest  wish,  and  to  see  continually  that  every  guest  was  pro- 
perly supplied.  All  proceeded  under  the  eye  and  direction  of 
the  Governor  of  thr,  fi-a&t.  (John  ii.  8.)  This  was  one  of  the 
company,  appointed  to  overlook  the  rest,  to  preserve  harmony 
and  good  humour,  to  see  that  the  servants  attended  to  their 
business,  and  to  regulate  the  whole  service  of  the  table.  While 
the  guests  were  surrounding  the  table,  it  seems  not  to  have 
been  uncommon  for  servants,  by  order  of  the  master,  to  anoint 
their  heads  with  rich  ointment,  ;  Luke  vii.  46;)  and  some- 
times, perhaps,  to  regale  them  by  burning  frankincense,  or 
other  aromatic  substances  in  the  room. 

Our  Lord,  in  his  parable  of  the  marriage  of  the  king's  son, 
introduces  several  circumstances  from  the  customs  of  the  great 
feasts  which  were  common  in  that  age.  (Matt.  xxii.  1 — 14.) 
On  another  occasion,  also,  he  uttered  a  parable  of  a  similar  kin  1. 
while  he  was  reclining  at  table  in  the  house  of  one  of  the  elm  f 
Pharisees.  (Luke  xiv.  16 — 24.)  It  was  at  the  same  entertain- 
ment, that  he  reproved  the  lawyers  and  Pharisees,  "  wb-  n  he 
marked  how  they  chose  out  the  chief  rooms,"  or  places  at  the 
table,  and  recommended  to  them  a  contrary  method,  of  modesty 
xii'l  humility. 

SPIRITUAL  FOOD. — As  spiritual  and  heavenly  things  can  be 


BIBLICAL    AN11QU1T1E8.  115 

represented  in  the  language  of  earth,  only  by  the  help  of  images 
3t"  an  earthly  and  sensible  kind,  it  has  always  been  common, 
among  other  forms  of  describing  them,  to  borrow  much  for  the 
purpose  from  the  character  and  circumstances  of  that  refresh- 
ment and  support  which  our  bodies  receive  from  food.  As  the 
body  is  nourished  by  its  appointed  food,  so  the  soul,  because  its 
welfare  and  improvement  are  made  to  depend  on  knowledge 
adapted  to  its  nature,  and  on  the  continual  communication  to 
it  of  God's  grace,  is  said  to  be  fed  by  them,  and  thus  to  yn.tc 
and  become  strong ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  by  being  de- 
prived of  them,  it  becomes  lean,  empty,  languishing,  and  dead. 
So,  also,  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  it  thus  thrive  and  grow, 
is  called  its  food,  its  bread,  and  its  drink.  Such  imagery  is 
known  to  some  extent  among  all  people,  because  it  is  exceed- 
ingly natural;  but  among  the  Jews,  it  was  drawn  forth  in  its 
most  unlimited  form.  Not  merely  is  the  soul  represented  as 
having  its  food  by  which  it  is  supported  and  strengthened,  but 
this  food  is  served  up  for  its  entertainment  with  all  the  variety 
and  preparation  of  a  feast.  It  is  not  only  refreshed  with  water, 
of  which  God  himself  is  the  great  and  inexhaustible  FOUN- 
TAIN, but  supplied,  if  obedient  to  the  heavenly  invitation,  with 
abundance  of  milk  and  of  richest  wine.  A  table  is  spread  for 
its  use;  provisions  of  the  most  excellent  sort  are  prepared  with 
the  greatest  profusion ;  and  it  is  called  upon  to  satisfy  its  hunger 
without  restraint.  "Wisdom,"  says  Solomon,  "hath  builded 
her  house;  she  hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars;  she  hath 
killed  her  beasts;  she  hath  mingled  her  wine;  she  hath  also 
furnished  her  table.  She  hath  sent  forth  her  maidens ;  she 
crieth  upon  the  highest  places  of  the  city,  Whoso  is  simple,  let 
him  turn  in  hither!  as  for  him  that  wanteth  understanding, 
she  saith  to  him,  Come,  eat  of  my  bread,  and  drink  of  the  wine 
which  I  have  mingled."  (Prov.  ix.  1 — 5.)  In  similar  style, 
Isaiah  more  than  once  sets  forth  the  rich  fulness  of  spiritual 
blessings  which  God  is  ready  to  bestow  upon  his  people.  "In 
this  mountain  shall  the  Lord  of  hosts  make  unto  all  people  a 
feast  of  fut  things,  a  feast  jf  wines  on  the  lees;  of  fat  things 
full  of  marrow,  of  wines  on  the  lees  well  refined."  (Isa.  xxv.  6.) 
"Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth !  come  ye  to  the  waters.  And  he 
that  hath  no  money!  come,  ye;  buy  and  eat.  Yea,  come;  buy 
\VI.NK  and  MILK  without  money  and  without  price."  (Isa.  Iv.  1.) 
Hut  it  became  common  to  extend  the  image  still  farther. 
The  whole  richness  of  that  enjoyment  which  awaits  the  righteous 
in  the  world  to  come  was  often  spoken  of  under  this  same  repre- 
sentation. In  the  house  of  their  heavenly  Father,  his  happy 
were  represented  as  ever  encircling  his  table,  richly 


116  BIBLICAL    AM-IQU1TIK* 

spread  with  the  provisions  of  life,  and  finding  in  its  social  baa 
fjiict  all  fulness  of  enjoyment  without  interruption,  in  his  pre- 
sence. Hence  that  expression:  "Blessed  is  lie  that  shall  eat 
bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God  !"  (Luke  xiv.  15.)  And  heii«-. 
also,  it  would  seem,  the  phrase,  "To  fie  in  Abraham'*  Imsom." 
is  used  to  express  the  same  idea  of  heavenly  felicity.  (Luke 
xvi.  22,  23,  compared  with  John  xiii.  23.)  Then-  is  allusion 
to  the  image  under  consideration,  also,  in  the  Saviour's  threat- 
ening declaration  to  the  Jews,  who  supposed  f/fw/W/-™  to  he 
exclusively  the  children  of  the  kingdom — the  peculiar  family 
of  God,  while  the  Gentiles  were  entirely  outcast  from  hi-  fa- 
vour:  "There  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  when 
ye  .shall  see  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  all  the  pro- 
phets, in  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  you  yourselves  thrust  out : 
and  they  shall  come  from  the  east,  and  from  the  west,  and  from 
the  north,  and  from  the  south,  and  shall  .»•//  </<nnt  (or  /•"///,<, 
as  at  table)  in  the  kingdom  of  God."  (Luke  xiii.  28,  2J>.)  So 
in  like  manner,  in  that  most  glorious  promise  to  the  disciple  - 
at  the  last  supper  :  "  I  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom,  as  my  Fa- 
ther hath  appointed  unto  me;  that  ye  may  eat  <unl  drink  af 
mi/  table,  in  my  kingdom,  and  sit  on  thrones,  judging  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel."  (Luke  xxii.  29,  30.)  On  the  same  solemn 
invasion,  when  the  Redeemer  took  the  cup,  and  gave  thanks, 
and  handed  it  to  the  twelve,  in  the  institution  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  he  added  these  words :  "  I  say  unto  you,  I  will  not 
drink  henceforth  of  this  fruit  of  the  vine,  until  that  day  when 
I  <Ir ink  it  new  with  you  in  my  Father  s  kii><i<l"ni."  (Matt. 
xxvi.  29.)  By  this  figurative  declaration,  he  intimated  that  he 
was  very  shortly  to  leave  this  earthly  state,  and  directed  the 
sorrowful  minds  of  his  follower's  to  that  infinite  blessedness 
which  was  to  be  enjoyed  in  heaven,  win  re  they  were  all  quickly 
to  be  re-united. 

SECTION  III. 

OF   SOCIAL   INTERCOURSE. 

IN  every  country,  there  are  certain  forms  of  conduct  and 
speech,  by  which  men  regulate  their  intercourse,  and  wL.cu, 
by  the  authority  of  long  custom,  are  rendered,  in  a  great  measure, 
incapable  of  change.  These  are  widely  different,  in  different 
nations  and  regions,  because  they  have  taken  their  rise,  in  all 
ca^es,  from  fancy  rather  than  reason,  and  have  all  been  modi- 
tied  by  a  hundred  accidental  circumstances  in  their  progress  of 
"efinement.  Hence,  too,  ihe  manners  of  one  people  have  al- 
ways somo  appearance  of  ridicul  -us  folly,  in  the  eyes  of  another, 


1HBLICAL    ANTIQUITIIrf.  II? 

H*)  far  us  they  are  found,  to  be  different.  Education  and  use 
render  us  blind  to  the  absurdity  of  our  own,  while  those  of 
other  countries,  presenting  themselves  to  our  calm  considera- 
tion without  any  such  advantage,  strike  us  at  once  with  a  sense 
of  their  true  character.  The  truth  is,  n.»  country  has  a  system 
of  manners  free  from  folly.  Was  the  moral  nature  of  man 
without  derangement,  it  would  of  itself  teach  him  true  polite- 
ness, which  would  be  the  same  politeness  in  all  countries.  But 
while  selfishness  and  pride  continue  to  be  the  reigning  princi- 
ples of  the  human  character,  this  cannot  be  expected.  Every 
system,  therefore,  which  he  devises  and  puts  in  practice,  can 
only  be  a  very  rude  imitation  of  what  he  imagines  a  rightly 
constituted  mind  would  adopt,  and  which  he  himself  is  driven 
to  find  out  from  necessity  and  self-love,  rather  than  from  good 
will  to  others.  Where  the  conception,  however,  is  necessarily 
so  defective,  and  the  imitation  of  that  conception  so  artificial, 
the  result  cannot  be  otherwise  than  ridiculous.  Still,  the  imi- 
tation under  any  form  is  better  than  nothing  at  all ;  and  inas- 
much as  what  is  true  and  perfect  cannot  be  hoped  for,  it  be- 
e<  inies  us  to  esteem  its  resemblance,  in  whatever  country  we  are 
found,  as  a  real  benefit  to  society.  At  the  same  time,  we  should 
not  judge  that  which  prevails  among  other  people  to  be  vastly 
more  unreasonable  than  our  own ;  it  accomplishes  the  same 
end,  and  may  be,  afU:r  all,  substantially  as  good  and  proper. 

The  forms  of  politeness  and  civility,  in  eastern  countries, 
have  always  been  far  more  extravagant  in  their  appearance, 
than  any  to  which  we  are  accustomed.  The  most  common  ex- 
pressions of  good  will,  as  they  prevail  there,  would  to  us  seem 
ridiculous  and  excessive.  The  ordinary  salutations  that  pass 
between  friends  or  acquaintances  when  they  meet,  are  length- 
ened out  in  long  and  formal  ceremony,  with  the  strongest  ges- 
tures and  the  wannest  professions  of  regard.  To  show  peculiar 
respect,  it  is  common  to  bow  the  bo</  y  downward  almost  to  the 
ground,  or  to  fall  entirely  prostrate  on  the  earth.  We  have, 
in  the  Bible,  repeated  intimations  of  similar  manners  among 
the  Jews ;  tempered,  indeed,  and  dignified,  in  many  instances, 
by  the  seriousness  of  religion,  but  still  wearing  an  aspect  pecu 
liar  to  the  east.  Thus,  in  the  earliest  times, 
we  rend  that  the  pious  Abraham  showed  re- 
spect to  strangers,  bowing  himself  before 
them  low  to  the  ground.  (Gen.  xviii.  2, 
xxiii.  7,  12.)  And  afterward,  down  to  the 
time  of  our  Saviour,  we  find  in  all  the  course 
i  >f  sac- red  history,  notices  of  the  same  fashion. 
In  the  parable  of  the  two  debtors  who  could  uot  pay,  we  arc  told 


118  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

of  them  both,  that  they  fell  down  at  the  feet  of  their  creditors, 
when  they  implored  their  forbearance.  In  these  cases,  it  it 
true,  this  humlde  attitude  was  prompted  by  great  ami  (>eculiai 
distress;  but  still  it  would  not  have  been  assumed,  unless  thfl 
custom  of  the  times  had  given  it  sanction,  in  the  practice  of 
those  who  wanted  to  show  extreme  respect  to  their  superiors 
(Matt,  xviii.  lit},  29.)  It  seems  to  have  been  common  to  show 
different  degrees  of  respect  to  different  persons,  according  to 
their  rank  and  importance,  by  bonding  the  body  in  a  greater 
or  less  measure.  Simply  to  bow  down  the  head, 
was  an  expression  of  mere  common  civility,  that 
marked  no  particular  regard  :  to  curve  the  body 
low  down,  signified  a  considerable  degree  of  reve- 
rence :  to  throw  it  entirely  down,  with  the  face 
upon  the  ground,  was  an  act  of  the  greatest  hom- 
age. As  the  attitude,  in  some  of  these  cases,  was 
similar  to  that  which  it  was  common  to  assume 
in  the  worship  of  Almighty  God,  the  same  terra 
was  sometimes  used  to  express  both  actions.  Hence  in  the 
language  of  Scripture,  to  worship  another,  sometimes  means 
merely  to  show  him  the  greatest  respect,  by  an  act  of  the 
most  profound  obeisance. 

Among  the  Jews,  the  common  phrases  of  salutation  at  meet- 
ing friends,  and  those  which  were  used  in  parting  from  them, 
were  of  a  religious  character,  expressing  prayers  for  the  bless- 
ing of  God  on  those  to  whom  they  were  spoken.  "  Be  thou 
blessed  of  Jehovah  ;"  "  The  blessing  of  .Jehovah  be  upon  thee ;" 
"  God  be  with  thee."  Such  were  usual  fonn/  in  the  mast  ancient 
times.  A  still  more  universal  <  \pn  <-inn  was,  "  Peace  be  with 
you ;"  and  this  is  the  general  salutation  in  eastern  countries, 
to  this  day.  Thus  our  Saviour  saluted  his  disciples,  when  he 
presented  himself  among  them  after  his  resurrection.  When 
uttered  by  his  lips,  the  words  had  real  and  rich  signification, 
widely  different  from  their  empty  value,  as  they  were  com- 
monly used  in  the  ce  -emonies  of  a  frivolous  world.  To  this 
difference  he  himself  directed  the  attention  of  his  afflicted 
followers,  when  h"  was  about  to  be  wiken  from  them  by  death  : 
"  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto  you  :  not  as 
the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto  you." 

At  the  present  day,  eastern  salutations  take  up  a  considers 
ble  time.  When  an  Arab  meets  his  friend,  he  begins,  while 
he  is  yet  some  distance  from  him,  to  make  gestures  that  may 
express  his  very  great  satisfaction  in  seeing  him.  When  he 
comes  up  to  him,  he  grasps  him  by  the  right  land,  and  then 
nrings  back  lu's  «wn  hand  to  his  lips,  in  token  of  respect.  H » 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  119 

next  proceeds  to  place  his  hand  gently  under  the  long  beard  yf 
rhe  other,  and  honours  it  with  an  affectionate  kiss.  He  in- 
quires particularly,  again  and  again,  concerning  his  health  and 
the  health  of  his  family ;  and  repeats,  over  and  over,  the  best 
wishes  for  his  prosperity  and  peace,  giving  thanks  to  God  that 
he  is  permitted  once  more  to  behold  his  face.  All  this  round 
of  gestures  and  words  is,  of  course,  gone  over  by  the  friend  too, 
with  like  formality.  But  they  are  not  generally  satisfied  with 
a  single  exchange  of  the  sort ;  they  sometimes  repeat  as  often 
as  ten  times,  the  whole  tiresome  ceremony,  with  little  or  on 
variation.  Some  such  tedious  modes  of  salutation  were  com- 
mon also  of  old  ;  so  that  a  man  might  suffer  very  material  de- 
lay in  travelling,  if  he  chanced  to  meet  several  acquaintances> 
and  should  undertake  to  salute  each  according  to  the  custom 
of  the  country.  On  this  account,  when  Elisha  sent  his  servant 
Gehazi,  in  great  haste,  to  the  Shunamite's  house,  he  said  to 
him  :  "  If  thou  meet  any  man,  salute  him  not ;  and  if  any 
Balute  thee,  answer  him  not  again."  (2  Kings  iv.  29.)  So, 
when  our  Lord  sent  forth  his  seventy  disciples,  among  other 
instructions,  he  bade  them  "salute  no  man  by  the  way;" 
meaning,  that  their  work  was  too  important  to  allow  such  a 
waste  of  time  in  the  exchange  of  mere  unmeaning  ceremonies. 
(Luke  x.  4.)  We  have  presented  to  us,  in  the  meeting  of  Ja- 
cob and  Esau,  a  form  of  salutation  which  may  give  us  some 
notion  of  the  manners  of  their  early  age  in  this  respect.  Few 
instances,  however,  could  equal  that,  in  the  genuine  and  affect- 
ing interest  which  it  displayed,  and  we  may  well  suppose, 
that  in  common  cases,  where  there  was  less  of  friendly  feeling, 
there  wa,s,  at  the  same  time,  more  attention  to  formal  cere- 
mony. On  that  occasion,  Jacob,  we  are  told,  "  bowed  him- 
self to  the  ground  seven  times,  until  he  came  near  to  his  bit> 
t In T  ;  and  Esau  ran  to  meet  him,  and  embraced  him,  and  fell 
on  his  neck,  and  kissed  him :  and  they  wept."  (Gen.  xxxiii. 
3.4.) 

When  one  person  made  a  visit  to  another,  especially  if  it 
was  to  one  of  high  rank  in  society,  it  was  customary  to  carry 
with  him  some  kind  of  a  present.  In  the  earliest  times,  it  ib 
probable  that  it  was  principally  in  this  way  kings  and  rulers 
received  their  tribute  from  the  people;  each  one  brought, 
whenever  he  came  into  their  presence,  some  gift  of  greater  01 
less  value,  as  a  free  expression  of  his  homage.  Afterwards,  by 
the  power  of  custom,  it  came  to  be  considered  a  matter  of  course, 
that  no  person  ini^lit  visit  one  in  authority  over  him,  without 
•uch  an  offering  by  way  of  introduction  and  recommendation 
Gradually,  the  same  way  of  showing  respect  grew  to  be  fashion- 


J20  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES- 

able  toward  any  other  great  man.  (Gen.  xliii.  ll.J  When 
Saul  was  made  king,  there  were  certain  persons  who  '•  despised 
him,  a:.d  broin/lit  /n'/ii  im  j>r> mn/a."  (1  Sam.  x.  27.)  God  re- 
proves the  Jews  for  their  unsound  offerings,  by  applying  the 
case  to  such  approaches  toward  an  earthly  ruler :  "Offer  it 
now  unto  thy  governor;  will  he  be  pleased  with  thec,  or  ac- 
tvjit  thy  person?"  (Mai.  i.  8.)  From  the  notion  of  respee» 
which  such  gifts  carried  in  the  minds  of  all,  and  which  led  U 
the  general  practice  of  offering  them  to  all  distinguished  per- 
sons, it  became  an  established  custom  to  bring  them  also  to 
prophets,  when  they  were  visited  for  direction  and  advice. 
Hence,  when  it  was  proposed  to  Saul  by  his  servant,  to  visit 
Samuel,  on  a  certain  occasion  of  perplexity,  he  considered  it 
out  of  the  question,  for  want  of  some  gift  to  appear  in  a  re- 
spectful and  becoming  manner  :  "  Behold,"  said  he,  "  if  we  go, 
what  shall  we  bring  the  man  ?  for  the  bread  is  spent  in  our 
vessels,  and  there  is  not  a  present  to  bring  to  the  man  of  God. 
What  have  we?  And  the  servant  answered,  Behold  I  have 
here  at  hand,  the  fourth  part  of  a  shekel  of  silver ;  that  will  I 
give  to  the  man  of  God."  (1  Sam.  ix.  7,  8.)  From  the  ex- 
treme smallness  of  the  present  here  considered  sufficient,  it  ia 
plain  that  the  common  offerings  which  the  prophets  received, 
were  not  of  any  importance  as  to  real  value,  but  were  simply 
meant  to  express  respect,  and  could  not  be  omitted,  according 
to  the  usage  of  the  times,  without  an  appearance  of  rude  in- 
difference to  the  dignity  of  their  character.  In  the  opinion  of 
Saul,  a  small  portion  of  bread  would  have  been  enough,  and  he 
WM  satisfied  with  the  quarter  of  a  shekel,  though  it  was  not 
equal  in  value  to  twelve  and  a  half  cents.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, princes  and  great  men  made  them  quite  magnificent  pre- 
M-nt>.  In  some  instances,  they  refused  to  take  such  offering, 
lest  they  should  seem  to  be  actuated  by  a  worldly  spirit.  It 
was  common,  in  making  presents  of  any  value,  to  bring  th^m 
with  much  parade  and  show.  Thus  Ha/uel,  when  he  went  to 
meet  Elisha,  took  with  him  a  present  oi  every  good  thing  of 
Damascus,  piled  with  great  display  on  the  backs  of  forty 
camels ;  though  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any  thing 
like  that  number  of  these  animals  was  really  necessary  to  carry 
it;  otherwise,  the  gift  would  have  been  altogether  enormous. 
In  eastern  countries,  the  custom  of  making  presents  when  visits 
are  performed,  is  still  universally  common.  To  neglect  such  a 
tribute  of  respect,  particularly  toward  one  of  more  than  enual 
rank,  is  gross  rudeness,  and  cannot  fail  to  meet  with  marked, 
disapprobation.  These  gifts  are  ofteiit lines  carried  with  great 
pomp,  and  so  arranged  as  to  make  the  greatest  possible  appear- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  121 

auco  of  magnificence  and  worth  j  half  a  dozen  horses  being 
employed  to  carry  what  might,  without  much  inconvenience, 
he  borne  by  one.  In  conformity  with  the  ancient  usage  of 
bringing  gifts  to  kings  and  princes,  as  tokens  of  respect  and 
homage,  the  wise  men  who  came  from  the  east  to  worship  Him 
that  was  "  born  King  of  the  Jews,"  came  not  with  empty 
hands  :  "  When  they  had  opened  their  treasures,  they  presented 
unto  him  gifts — gold,  and  frankincense,  and  myrrh."  (Matt, 
h  11.) 

In  the  entertainment  of  guests,  much  attention  and  much 
formality  have  always  distinguished  the  eastern  manners.  The 
most  scrupulous  regard  to  the  established  forms  of  dignity  and 
respect  is  constantly  observed.  The  particular  seat  which  a 
man  occupies  in  the  room,  and  the  particular  posture  of  his 
body  while  he  sits,  are  not  matters  of  indifference;  there  is  a 
law  of  long-established  power  to  determine  both.  The  seat  at 
the  corner  of  the  room  is  most  honourable,  and  is  given  to  visit- 
ers  by  way  of  distinction.  When  an  individual  sits  in  the  pre- 
sence of  a  superior,  he  shows  his  respect  by  sitting  completely 
upon  his  heels.  To  anoint  the  head,  regale  with  burnt  per- 
fume, and  sprinkle!  with  scented  water,  are  various  methods  of 
displaying  regard. 

Conversation,  in  these  countries,  is  generally  reserved  and 
grave.  The  people  are  little  disposed  to  indulge  themselves 
with  that  free  and  unrestrained  liberty  in  this  matter,  that  is 
common  among  us.  They  seem  to  feel,  that  in  a  multitude  of 
words  there  wanteth  not  vanity ;  and  that  in  the  mere  talk  of 
the  lips,  there  is  not  often  much  profit.  It  is  not  with  them, 
as  in  some  other  countries,  a  principle  that  much  silence  in 
i-ompuny  is  unlovely,  or  impolite,  or  that  it  is  better  to  talk 
nonsense  for  the  sake  of  social  intercourse,  than  to  sit  with 
sealed  lips  when  a  person  has  nothing  to  say :  their  words  are 
commonly  few  and  formal,  and  uttered  only  when  they  imagine 
it  may  be  done  with  dignity,  either  in  the  way  of  compliment 
or  occasional  general  remark.  In  ancient  times,  there  appear* 
to  have  been  more  disposition  for  social  conversation.  Still  we 
find  among  the  Jews,  as  they  are  presented  to  us  in  the  Bible, 
a  conHuVniUe  degree  of  the  same  character  in  this  respect. 
Their  conversation  was  marked  with  gravity  and  moderation, 
much  more  than  is  common  in  our  ordinary  intercourse,  and 
\v  mis  were  expected  to  have  meaning,  when  they  claimed  at- 
tention from  others.  Hence  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  a  man 
undertook  to  utter  his  sentiments,  they  were  often  expressed 
in  a  formal,  sententious  strain,  and  if  continued  any  time,  took 
the  appearance  of  a  dignified  and  regular  speech.  There  i' 

II 


122  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

even  some  room  to  imagine  that  the  phrase,  to  open  the  wo«//A, 
80  commonly  made  use  of  to  express  a  commenceuieut  -if 
speech,  may  have  had  its  rise,  in  some  measure,  from  the  geue 
ral  rareness  of  the  thing,  and  the  idea  of  importance  that  was 
attached  to  such  an  undertaking.  Among  us,  at  any  rate,  it 
is  generally  so  incessantly  open  when  there  is  opportunity  to 
speak,  and  too  generally  open  to  so  little  valuable  purpose,  that 
such  an  expression  would  seem  to  have  no  great  propriety. 

The  common  form  of  assent  in  ronversatimi  was,  Tliou  hnxt 
said,  or  Tli<,n  *ayi:*t ;  meaning,  Thou  art  right;  It  is  as  thou 
hast  said.  ^Mutt.  xxvi.  64,  John  xviii.  37.) 

In  eiiies,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  common  place  of  ge- 
neral resort  was  at  the  Gate.  Here  there  was  a  convenient 
space  left  free  for  the  purpose1,  and  fitted  up  with  seats  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  people.  Those  who  were  at  leisure,  and 
wished  to  find  some  interest  for  their  idle  moments,  were  ac- 
customed to  take  their  seat  in  this  place,  and  occupy  them- 
selves either  with  looking  at  what  was  going  on  around,  01  in 
(•ccasional  conversation  with  others  on  the  general  affaire  of 
(he  day. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
DOMESTIC   CUSTOMS   AND   HABITS. 

SECTION  I. 

OP   THE    MARRIAGE    RELATION. 

MARRIAGE  has  always  been  considered,  among  the  Jews, 
peculiarly  honourable.  Their  doctrine  on  this  subject  has 
been,  that  it  is  unbecoming  and  unlawful  for  any  person,  of 
proper  age,  to  continue  in  a  single  state.  With  them,  to  live 
without  a  family,  and  to  die  without  posterity,  could  never  be 
altogether  without  reproach.  Hence,  their  marriages  have 
generally  been  early.  At  the  age  of  twenty,  at  farthest,  every 
young  person,  according  to  them,  ought  to  be  married.  At 
that  age,  the  obligation  to  take  a  companion  became  most  se- 
rious and  indispensable;  and  it  was  considered  much  more  re- 
spectable and  praiseworthy  to  attend  to  the  duty  a  good  while 


It  was  common,  from  the  earliest  times,  for  a  father  to 
choose,  wives  for  his  sons,  and  huslmiuls  for  his  daughters. 
Thus  Abraham  sent  his  servant  to  procure  a  wife  for  his  son 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  123 

.Ham1,  without  consulting  him  particularly  on  the  matter  at 
all;  and  so,  when  Samson  wanted  to  marry  a  particular  wo- 
man, he  applied  to  his  father  to  get  her  for  him  as  a  wifr,  as 
the  proper  way  of  accomplishing  his  desire.  (Judg.  xiv.  1 — 4.) 
In  some  other  cases,  however,  the  matter,  in  relation  to  sons, 
seems  to  have  been  left  altogether  to  their  own  discretion.  In 
the  first  ages,  not  only  her  parents,  hut  her  brothers  also,  had 
authority  in  the  disposal  of  a  female  in  marriage,  as  we  see  in 
the  instances  of  Rebecca  and  Dinah.  Instead  of  receiving  any 
property  along  with  his  wife,  when  he  married,  a  man  was  ex- 
pected to  pay  a  considerable  price,  according  to  his  ability,  for 
the  woman  herself.  Gifts  were  oftentimes  to  be  made  to  her 
brothers,  and  the  father  was  to  receive  a  settled  dowry.  In 
this  way,  an  agreement  or  contract  of  marriage  was  made, 
without  any  consultation  whatever  with  the  intended  bride. 
After  this  agreement,  however,  at  least  in  later  ages,  the  dam- 
sel was  brought  into  the  presence  of  her  suitor,  and  a  formal 
covenant,  or  engagement  to  become  man  and  wife  at  some  fu- 
ture time,  was  entered  into  by  both,  before  witnesses;  this  was 
called  espousing,  or  betrothing.  Thus  Shechem  made  a  bargain 
with  Jacob  and  his  sons :  "  Let  me  find  grace  in  your  eyes, 
and  what  ye  shall  say  unto  me,  I  will  give.  Ask  me  never 
so  much  dowry  and  gift,  and  I  will  give  according  as  yo  shall 
say  unto  me;  but  give  me  the  damsel  to  wife."  (Gen.  xxxiv. 
11,  12.)  When  a  young  man  was  not  able  to  purchase  a  wo- 
man with  money,  he  might,  if  her  friends  consented,  pay  for 
her  by  a  longer  or  shorter  term  of  service.  So  Jacob  served 
seven  years  for  each  of  his  two  wives.  Sometimes  a  wife  was 
given  as  a  reward  of  bravery.  (Josh.  xv.  16,  1  Sain,  xviii.  25.) 
The  same  custom  of  purchasing  wives  is  still  common  in  the 
Ivist ;  so  that  it  is  accounted,  in  some  places,  quite  a  fortune 
for  a  father  to  have  many  daughters,  on  account  of  the  wealth 
which  they  will  bring  into  his  house  by  their  several  marriage- 
dowries.  Frequently,  however,  the  presents  which  the  bride- 
groom makes  in  this  way,  are  laid  out  in  clothes  and  furniture 
for  the  bride,  and  so,  restored,  in  some  measure,  to  the  giver. 
Perhaps,  in  the  later  times  of  the  Jewish  nation,  something  of 
the  same  kind  was  common. 

There  was  generally  an  interval  of  ten  or  twelve  months,  and 
sometimes  considerably  more,  between  the  time  of  making  the 
marriage  contract,  or  the  day  of  espousals,  and  the  marriage 
itself.  Tims  we  read  that  Samson  first  went  down  to  Titnnath 
with  his  parents,  and  talked  with  the  woman  whom  he  wished 
for  a  wife,  and  "she  pleased  him  well."  This  was  the  time  of 
'ipousa'-.s,  but  it  was  not  till  after  a  true,  that  he  "returned 


124  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

to  take  IKT"  Ky  actual  marriage.  (Judg.  xiv.  7,  s-)  During 
all  this  intejval,  however,  while  the  bride  continued  still  in 
her  father's  house,  she  was  considered  ami  spoken  of  us  the 
lawful  wife  uf  the  man  to  whom  -hi*  was  betrothed;  so  that 
the  bridegroom  could  not  destroy  their  engagement,  if  he  be- 
came unwilling  to  marry  her,  without  giving  her  a  bill  of  di- 
vorce, in  the  sani"  manner  as  if  she  had  been  fully  wedded; 
and  so,  on  the  other  hand,  if  she  proved  unfaithful  to  her 
espoused  husband,  she  was  punished  as  an  adulteress.  It  was 
between  the  time  of  her  espousals  and  her  actual  marriage, 
that  the  Virgin  Mary,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  (ihost,  con- 
ceived in  her  womb  the  Redeemer  of  the  world.  On  this  oc- 
casion, .Joseph  had  power,  as  her  betrothed  husband,  to  make 
her  a /<»/'//-•  <. nun  pie,  by  causing  her  to  be  stoned  according 
to  the  law  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  at  liberty  to  give 
her  a  bill  of  divorce  and  dismiss  her  privately.  Accordingly, 
though  he  considered  if  his  duty  to  give  up  his  intended  mar- 
riage, he  had  too  much  regard  for  her  reputation,  and  too  much 
confidence,  we  may  suppose,  in  her  own  account  of  the  miracle 
of  her  conception,  to  expose  her  before  the  world ;  and  so  had 
concluded  to  adopt  the  other  course,  when  the  angel  relieved 
his  anxiety  by  commanding  him  to  take  ber  without  hesitation. 
<  Matt.  i.  18—20.) 

When  the  time  of  marriage  arrived,  the  bride  prepared  her- 
self for  the  occasion  with  the  utmost  care.  She  was  adorned 
by  her  attendants  with  all  the  elegance  which  the  taste  of  the 
times  rendered  fashionable  ;  and  to  complete  her  joyful  appear- 
ance, the  bridal  crown  was  placed  upon  her  head.  The  bride- 
groom presented  himself  at  her  father's  house,  attended  with  a 
number  of  young  men  of  his  own  age.  The  wedding  festiva' 
frequently  lasted  seven  days,  as  we  may  see  in  the  wise  of  Sam 
son,  and  in  that  of  Jacob  at  a  much  earlier  period.  During 
this  time,  the  bridegroom  and  his  companions  entertained 
themselves,  in  various  ways,  in  one  part  of  the  house;  while 
the  bride  wus  engaged  with  a  like  company  of  her  young  female 
friend.^,  in  another.  It  was  not  considered  proper  on  such  oc- 
MI  or  on  any  other,  for  young  persons  of  both  sexes  to 
mingle  together  in  the  festive  circle,  or  even  so  much  as  to  eat 
at  the  same  table.  In  the  account  of  Samson's  wedding,  we 
tind  that  one  method  of  giving  life  to  the  intercourse  of  the 
youug  men,  was  to  propose  riddles,  and  exercise  their  ingenuity 
in  explaining  them.  The  companions  of  the  bridegroom  were 
-  •in-time-:  called  the  <-liililri-ii,  or  s/>»x,  nf  f/i-  l,ril> -<-lm  inl>fr. 
Oil  the  last  day,  the  bride  was  conducted  to  the  house  of  the 
•rid'-groom's  father.  The  procession  generally  se.t  off  in  the 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  125 

ironing,  with  much  ceremony  and  pomp.  The  bridegroom 
was  richly  clothed  with  a  marriage  robe  and  crown,  and  the 
bride  was  covered  with  a  veil  from  head  to  foot.  The  com- 
panions of  each  attended  them  with  songs  and  the  music  of  in- 
struments ;  not  in  promiscuous  assemblage,  but  each  company 
by  itself;  while  the  virgins,  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
times,  were  all  provided  with  veils,  not  indeed  so  large  and 
thick  as  that  which  hung  over  the  bride,  but  abundantly  suf- 
ficient to  conceal  their  faces  from  all  around.  The  way,  as  they 
went  along,  was  lighted  with  numerous  torches  In  the  mean 
time,  another  company  was  waiting  at  the  bridegroom's  house, 
ready,  at  the  first  notice  of  their  approach,  to  go  forth  and  meet 
them.  These  seem  generally  to  have  been  young  female  rela- 
tions or  friends  of  the  bridegroom's  family,  called  in  at  this 
time,  by  a  particular  invitation,  to  grace  the  occasion  with  their 
presence.  Adorned  with  robes  of  gladness  and  joy,  they  went 
forth  with  lamps  or  torches  in  their  hands,  and  welcomed  the 
procession  with  the  customary  salutations.  They  then  joined 
themselves  to  the  marriage  train,  and  the  whole  company 
moved  forward  to  the  house.  There  an  entertainment  was  pro- 
vided for  their  reception,  and  the  remainder  of  the  evening  was 
spent  in  a  cheerful  participation  of  the  Marriage  Supper,  with 
such  social  merriment  as  suited  the  joyous  occasion.  None 
were  admitted  to  this  entertainment,  beside  the  particular  num- 
ber who  were  selected  to  attend  the  wedding;  and  as  the  regu- 
lar and  proper  time  for  their  entrance  into  the  house  was  when 
the  bridegroom  went  in  with  his  bride,  the  doors  were  then 
closed,  and  no  other  guest  was  expected  to  come  in.  Such  ap- 
pear to  have  been  the  general  ceremonies  which  attended  the 
celebration  of  a  marriage.  No  doubt,  however,  among  differ- 
ent ranks,  and  in  different  ages  of  the  nation,  the  particular 
forms  and  fashions  were  often  considerably  different. 

In  modern  times,  the  Jews  have  a  regular,  formal  marriage- 
rite,  by  which  the  union  is  solemnly  ratified.  The  parties 
stand  under  a  canopy,  each  covered  with  a  black  veil ;  some 
grave  person  takes  a  cup  of  wine,  pronounces  a  short  blessing, 
and  hands  it  to  be  tasted  by  both ;  the  bridegroom  puts  a  ring 
on  the  finger  of  his  bride,  saying,  "  By  this  ring  thou  art  my 
spouse,  according  to  the  custom  of  Moses  and  the  children  of 
Israel :"  the  marriage  contract  is  then  read,  and  given  to  the 
bride's  relations ;  another  cup  of  wine  is  brought  and  b'essed 
six  time-*,  when  the  married  couple  t;i>te  it,  ami  jnnir  the  rest 
out  in  token  of  cheerfulness ;  and  to  conclude  all,  the  husband 
dashes  the  cup  itself  against  the  wall,  and  breaks  it  all  to 
pieces,  in  memory  of  the  sad  destruction  of  their  once  gloriow 


11* 


]'26  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIKS 

Tomplc.  But  there  seems  to  have  been,  anciently,  very  ih 
form  of  tin's  kind.  In  very  early  times,  the  only  ceremony  by 
which  the  union  was  confirmed,  was  a  solemn  bles>ing,  pro- 
nounced by  the  nearest  relations,  on  the  parties  \vli<>  upna  in 
their  presence  to  become  husband  and  wife;  and  this  was 
rather  a  mere  circumstance  established  by  pious  custom,  than 
•  rite  by  which  the  marriage  itself  was  performed.  (Gen.  xxiv 
60.)  The  manner  of  marriage  was  of  this  simple  kind,  in  the 
days  of  Ruth.  Boaz  merely  declared  in  presence  of  the  elders 
assembled  at  tin-  gate,  that  he  had  resolved  to  take  the  daugh- 
ter of  Naomi  to  be  his  wife ;  "  and  all  the  people  that  were  in 
the  gate,  and  all  the  elders  said,  We  are  witnesses.  The  Lord 
make  the  woman  that  is  come  into  thine  house,  like  Rachel 
and  like  Leah,  which  two  did  build  the  house  of  Israel ;  an<l 
do  thou  worthily  in  Kphratah,  and  be  famous  in  IVthlehem.' 
So  Boaz,  we  are  told,  "took  Ruth,  and  she  became  his  wife." 
(Ruth  iv.  11,  13.)  Before  the  time  of  Christ,  it  became  cus- 
tomary to  have  some  little  more  ceremony  :  still,  it  seems  that 
the  marriage  connection  was  supposed  to  be  formed,  rather  by 
the  whole  celebration  of  the  wedding  together,  as  a  mutual 
public  agreement  in  the  presence  of  the  friends  of  both  j>artie<, 
than  by  any  one  particular  rite. 

SPIRITUAL  MAKRIAOE. — As  no  relation  on  earth  is  more  in- 
'  *,imate  and  tender  than  that  which  is  formed  by  marriage,  our 
blessed  Lord,  who  was  accustomed  to  employ  every  strong 
image  which  the  world  could  furnish,  to  express  his  close  union 
with  the  church  of  his  redeemed  people,  and  his  most  affection- 
ate concern  for  their  welfare^  has,  in  his  holy  word,  made 
much  use  of  this  connection,  a..:ong  others,  for  that  purpose. 
The  church  is  his  bride  and  his  spouse;  and  as  the  bridegroom 
rejoices  over  his  beloved  in  the  day  of  marriage,  and  as  the 
kindest  husband  cherishes  the  wife  of  his  bosom,  so  he  delights 
in  bis  people,  and  so  he  keeps  them  with  continual  care.  The 
ap<  stle,  speaking  of  this  spiritual  marriage,  in  one  place  calls 
it  </  yrxit  in i/xti-ry  ;  whereby,  as  in  common  marriages,  a  man 
uinl  his  wife  }»ccome,  according  to  the  original  institution  of 
God,  oneft'xh,  and  s<i  the  people  nf  Chri>t  an-  made,  as  it  were, 
"members  of  his  body,  of  his  flesh,  and  of  his  IMHICS."  (  Kph. 
v.  23 — 33.)  This  way  of  representing  the  union  between  <Ji>d 
and  his  church  wa>  used  loin:  before  the  time  of  Christ.  The 
inspired  writers  of  the  Old  Testament  were  familiar  with  the 
image.  To  encourage  /ion,  the  prophet  exclaims:  "Thy 
Maker  is  thy  husband  ;  the  Lord  of  Hosts  is  his  name  !"  "  AJ 
the  bridegroom  rejoiceth  over  the  bride,  so  shall  thy  God  re- 
juice  n-er  thee !"  (Isa.  Jiv.  5,  Ixii.  5.  See  also  Jer  ii  2, 


ANTIQUITIES.  127 

EZCJC  xvi.  8 — 14.)  Hence,  in  conformity  with  the  same 
image,  nothing  is  more  common  in  the  language  of  the  ancient 
prophets,  than  to  represent  the  impiety  and  idolatry  of  the 
Jewish  church  as  adultery,  and  unfaithfulness  to  the  solemn 
vows  of  marriage. 

Sometimes,  under  this  image  of  a  marriage  union,  the  rela- 
'jon  between  God,  or  Christ,  and  his  whole  professing  church, 
as  a  separate  society  on  earth,  is  represented;  at  other  times, 
It  is  employed  to  shadow  forth  the  far  higher  and  more  glorious 
connection  which  exists  between  Him  and  the  true  spiritual 
church,  made  up  only  of  real  believers,  of  which  the  other  is 
iiut  the  outward,  and  too  often,  to  a  great  extent,  the  empty 
sign.  This  mysterious  and  sacred  union,  whereby  the  Messiah 
becomes  one  with  the  whole  body  of  his  true  redeemed  people, 
is  beautifully  celebrated  under  the  allegory  of  a  royal  marriage, 
in  the  forty-fifth  Psalm.  The  Bridegroom  and  bride,  magnifi- 
cently described  in  that  inspired  song,  were  always  understood, 
long  before  Clirist  runic  into  the  world,  to  mean  the  promised 
Redeemer  and  his  church ;  and,  accordingly,  the  apostle  Paul 
expressly  tenches  us  that  the  character  of  the  first  belongs  only 
to  the  Son  of  God.  (Heb.  i.  8,  9.)  The  same  allegory  is  still 
more  fully  presented  in  another  whole  book  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures.  The  Song  of  Solomon  is  a  poem  framed  al- 
together in  conformity  with  the  solemnity  of  a  real  marriage. 
The  bridegroom  and  bride,  and  their  companions,  are  all  intro- 
duced, in  regular  and  animated  dialogue ;  and  the  whole  lan- 
guage and  imagery  of  the  piece  have  immediate  respect  to  the 
circumstances  of  an  actual  marriage  scene.  From  the  earliest 
times,  however,  the  Song  has  been  considered  mystically  de- 
scriptive of  a  far  more  exalted  love,  and  a  far  more  intimate 
union,  than  any  of  a  mere  earthly  kind.  King  Solomon, 
whom  it  presents  to  our  view,  arrayed  in  his  festival  rohes,  and 
wearing  the  "  crown  wherewith  his  mother  crowned  him  in  the 
day  of  his  espousals,  and  in  the  day  of  the  gladness  of  his 
heart,"  is  the  humble  type  of  a  far  more  illustrious,  even  a 
heavenly  Bridegroom.  His  spouse,  "  fairest  among  women," 
and  adorned  with  all  the  magnificence  of  a  Prince's  daughter, 
represents  an  exceedingly  more  glorious  bride — the  Church  of 
God,  purchased  n-it/i  /</.«.•  own  blood,  and  rendered  comely  be- 
yond expression,  with  the  beauty  of  holiness  and  the  garments 
of  grace,  supplied  by  his  own  Spirit.  This  is  the  bride,  the 
Lnmb's  wife,  of  whom  the  apostle  speaks  in  the  book  of  Reve- 
lation ;  and  who,  as  he  tells  us,  is  the  holy  city,  the  new  Jeru- 
salem ,  that  is,  the  redeemed  church  of  Christ.  (Rev.  xxi.  2, 
9,  10,  xxii.  17.)  In  the  vision  of  prophecy,  the  inspired  -Jiso5 


128  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

pie  is  carried  far  along  the  distance  or  many  hundred  yeirs,  fo 
the  remotest  eud  of  time.  Scenes  of  trial  and  distress  riso 
upon  his  view  one  after  another,  in  long  and  melancholy  suc- 
cession;  and  while  the  church  is  still  upheld,  and  gradually 
advances  onward  to  greater  importance  in  the  world,  it  is, 
nevertheless,  surrounded  on  every  side  with  frightful  forms  of 
darkness,  and  met  at  every  step  with  rising  shapes  of  difficulty 
and  danger;  so  as  to  seem,  at  times,  just  ready  to  be  over- 
whelmed with  their  power.  All  this,  however,  is  but  the  course 
of  preparation  for  her  day  of  triumph  and  joy.  In  the  eud,  a 
voice  is  heard,  like  the  sound  of  many  waters  and  of  mightiest 
thunders :  "  Hallelujah  !  for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reign- 
eth  !  Let  us  be  glad,  and  rejoice,  and  give  honour  to  Him  ;  for 
the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  his  wife  hath  made 
herself  ready.  And  to  her,"  says  the  sacred  writer,  "  was 
granted  that  she  should  be  arrayed  in  fine  linen,  clean  and 
white;  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteousness  of  the  saints." 
Then  said  the  angel  to  the  holy  man  :  "  Write,  Blessed  are 
they  which  are  called  unto  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb  !" 
(Rev.  xix.  6 — 9.) 

After  this  brief  consideration  of  the  frequent  use  which  is 
made  of  the  image  in  question,  in  other  parts  of  Scripture,  we 
are  better  prepared  to  perceive  the  beauty  and  force  of  several 
allusions  which  are  made  to  it  in  the  Gospels.  John  the 
Baptist  di.-tinguishes  Christ  by  the  title  of  the  Bridegroom  ; 
no  doubt,  with  reference  to  that  spiritual  relation  to  his  church, 
which,  under  the  image  of  a  marriage,  was  so  familiar  to 
readers  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  and  which  every  serious  Jew 
well  understood  could  be  properly  ascribed  to  no  other  but  the 
.Messiah  of  God,  who  was  to  come  into  the  world.  He  styles 
himself  the  Bridegroom's  friend,  to  intimate  that  he  acted  in 
!iis  work  but  as  the  humble  minister  of  Christ,  and  found  his 
own  joy  in  the  advancement  of  his  Master's  glory.  (John  iii. 
29.)  Our  Saviour,  in  another  place,  represents  himself  under 
the  same  character,  and  his  disciples  are,  at  the  same  time, 
called  the  children  of  the  bride-chamber,  or  companions  of  the 
bridegroom.  (Matt.  ix.  15.)  In  the  parable  of  the  marriage 
of  the  king's  son,  we  have  again  presented  to  us  the  mi/*/i«il 
allnjory  of  the  Old  Testament,  already  noticed,  rather  than  a 
mere  illustration  of  one  particular  point  by  <-fnn/mri>u»i  with 
the.  ceremonies  of  a  great  wedding.  The  King's  Son  is  no 
other  than  the  Messiah  himself,  the  spiritual  Bridegroom  of 
Solomon's  Song,  whose  Father  is  the  King  of  kings,  the  ever- 
lasting God.  To  the  marriage  festival,  so  long  foretold  in 
their  own  prophecies,  the  Jews  were  first  invited  But  they 


BIBLICAL     ANTIQUITIES.  129 

refused  to  (Mine  as  a  nation.  They  put  far  from  them  the  bless- 
ings of  the  gospel.  In  anger,  God  has  sent  forth  his  armies 
n  burn  up  their  city,  and  to  scatter  them,  with  great  destruc- 
tion, among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  as  they  are  found  to 
this  day.  Then  the  invitation  went  forth  to  the  long-nog 
locted  and  despised  Gentiles,  who  were  sunk  in  the  lowest 
degradation  of  ignorance  and  idolatry.  To  them  the  call  has 
been  sounding  ever  since,  and  many  have  been  compelled,  by 
its  heavenly  persuasion,  to  attend  and  come;  while  many 
others,  alas,  have  repeated,  as  multitudes  are  still  repeating, 
the  miserable  folly  of  the  Jews,  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
sound  of  kindness,  till  fear  came  like  desolation  from  the  Al- 
mighty; and  destruction,  as  a  whirlwind,  big  with  the  wrath 
of  Jehovah,  swept  them  away.  But  "  when  the  king  came  in 
to  see  the  guests,  he  saw  there  a  man  which  had  not  on  a 
wedding  garment."  In  great  houses,  festival  garments  were 
always  kept  ready  for  such  an  occasion,  and  furnished  freely 


for  all  the  guests.  It  was,  therefore,  a  most  offensive  disre- 
spect to  the  master,  for  any  guest  to  neglect  clothing  himself 
with  one  immediately.  When  the  king  asked  for  an  expla- 
nation, the  man  was  speechless.  "  Then  said  the  king  to  the 
servants,  Bind  him  hand  and  foot,  and  take  him  away,  and 
east  him  into  outer  darkness."  All  this  stnmd.Y  represents 
the  danger  of  trifling  with  God,  by  a  mere  show  of  eomplyin<r 
with  the  call  of  the  gospel,  while  the  simple  terras  of  salvation 
are  neglected  To  sit  down  at  the  marriage  supper  of  the 
Limb  and  his  bride,  we  must  each  one  be  arrayed  in  the  robe 
of  righteousness,  which  he  himself  has  provided,  afvast  ex- 
pense, for  every  guest.  Whosoever  may  eorne  forward,  to  1* 
u  partaker  in  the  spiritual  feast  without  this  robe,  will  %s 


180  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

suredly  be  covered  with  speechless  confusion,  and  thrust  out 
into  eternal  darkness.  To  be  forcibly  cast  out  with  shamo, 
from  the  joyous  assembly  and  the  brilliantly  lighted  room  of  a 
royal  marriage  festival,  into  the  comfortless  and  lonely  gloom 
of  night,  outside  of  the  house,  would  be  an  exceeding  mortiti 
caMon  ;  but  this  furnishes  only  a  feeble  representation  of  the 
horror  that  must  seize  the  soul,  when  it  is  driven  from  the 
presence  of  (rod  in  anger,  and  shut  out  far  from  his  peaceful 
kingdom,  in  the  deepest  night  of  death  and  hell.  Ah,  tin  n- 
imieed  "shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth  !"  (Matt, 
xxii.  1 — 14.)  The  danger  of  failing  to  secure  the  Messing  of 
H«;aven,  through  negligence  and  sloth,  is  in  >st  strikingly  dis- 
played in  another  marriage  parable.  Five  of  ten  virgins  who 
were  assembled  at  the  bridegroom's  house,  to  go  forth  and 
meet  him  with  lights,  when  he  should  come  home  in  the  night 
with  his  wedding  procession,  were  so  foolish  as  to  take  no  oil 
with  them  in  their  vessels.  At  midnight,  while  they  all  slept, 
there  was  a  cry  made  :  "  Behold  the  bridegroom  cometh  ;  go 
ye  out  to  meet  him."  Then  these  virgins  had  no  oil,  and  were 
compelled,  at  that  late  hour,  to  go  and  buy.  But  while  they 
were  away,  the  bridegroom  came,  "and  they  that  were  ready, 
went  in  with  him  to  the  marriage;  and  the  (]i*>r  im.*  */////." 
When  the  foolish  virgins  returned,  they  could  find  no  admis- 
sion to  the  joyful  company  within.  "  Watch,  therefore,"  is 
the  language  of  the  Saviour,  "for  ye  know  neither  the  day 
nor  the  hour  wherein  the  Son  of  man  cometh."  (Matt.  x.\v. 
1 — 13.)  Blessed  are  they  which  are  called  unto  the  marriage 
supper*  of  the  Lamb  ! 

POLYGAMY. — God,  in  the  beginning,  made  only  one  m;m 
and  one  woman,  and  thus  showed  his  will,  that  no  man  should 
ever  have  morb  than  one  wife  at  the  same  time.  (Matt.  xix.  4.) 
Very  early,  however,  this  excellent  appointment  wa-s  trat.s- 
gressed.  Lamech,  long  before  the  flood,  had  two  wives;  and 
afterward  it  became  so  common  that  even  pious  men,  like 
Abraham  and  Jacob,  fell  into  the  evil.  Among-  the  Jews,  it 
was  very  fashionable,  in  the  time  of  Moses,  to  have  more  than 
one  wife,  and  continued  so,  at  least  in  the  higher  ranks  of  so- 
•-•i'-ty,  long  after.  Before  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  however, 
it  seems  to  have  become  far  less  common.  The  law  of  M<»<  s 
suffered  it,  on  account  of  the  hardness  of  heart  which  was 
found  among  the  people.  The  fiown  of  God,  however,  was 
displayed  against  it,  in  the  disj>.-n-ati"ii>  of  his  righteous  pio- 
vidence.  How  was  the  comfort  of  Abraham's  hou.-e  disturbed 
by  his  unhappy  marriage  with  Ilagarl  and  how  were  the  years 
^f  Jacob  afflicted  with  the  bitter  jealousy  of  his  wives,  and  the 


BIBLICAL     4.NTIQUITIE8.  181 

augodlj  conduct  of  his  sons !  What  a  heavy  cloud  of  sorrow 
liuug  upon  the  family  of  David,  from  the  same  source !  And 
what  shall  we  say  of  Solomon,  with  his  thousand  women? 
They  "  turned  away  his  heart"  from  the  Lord,  so  that  his  most 
illustrious  life  was  covered,  toward  its  close,  with  a  dreadful 
darkness  of  guilt;  and  a  fearful  mystery  is  left  to  rest,  in  the 
word  of  God,  over  all  his  latter  end !  The  Concubines,  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible,  were  true  wives," as  really  married  as  any 
others;  only  they  were  persons  of  lower  condition  than  the 
principal  wives,  frequently  mere  servants  in  the  house,  and  so 
were  married  with  much  less  ceremony.  Their  children  were 
not  always  placed  on  an  equal  footing  with  those  of  other 
wives  in  the  inheritance  of  their  father's  property. — Polygamy 
still  exists  in  eastern  countries  to  an  awful  extent,  and  is  the 
source  of  unnumbered  evils. 

DIVORCE. — The  Jews,  from  the  earliest  times,  exercised  a 
very  arbitrary  power  over  their  wives.  Divorces  were  fre- 
quent, and  often  for  slight  offences.  God  always  regarded 
such  conduct  with  displeasure.  (Mic.  ii.  9,  Mai.  ii.  14 — 16.) 
Still,  it  was  not  expressly  determined  by  the  law  of  Moses,  to 
what  cases  the  power  of  the  husband  should  be  restrained  in 
this  matter.  The  husband  was  left  to  decide  for  himself, 
whether  a  sufficient  occasion  for  separation  was  found  in  his 
wife :  and  was  only  required,  if  he  resolved  to  send  her  away, 
to  give  her  a  Bill  of  divorce.  (Deut.  xxiv.  1 — 4.)  Before  the 
time  of  our  Saviour,  the  Jewish  doctors  became  completely 
divided  in  opinion  about  what  should  be  considered^  just 
cause  for  divorce.  One  class  maintained,  that,  according  to 
the  true  meaning  of  the  words  of  the  law  just  referred  to,  no 
reason,  except  adultery,  was  sufficient;  while  another  asserted 
that  the  law  allowed  a  man  to  put  away  his  wife  for  any  mat- 
ter of  displeasure  whatever,  even  the  most  insignificant.  This 
latter  sentiment  seems  to  have  prevailed  most  generally  through 
the  mass  of  the  nation,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  licentious 
practice  in  this  point,  which  was  everywhere  common.  To 
tempt  our  Lord,  the  Pharisees  proposed  to  him  this  much  dis- 
puted question:  "Is  it  lawful,"  they  said,  "for  a  man  to  put 
away  his  wife  for  every  cause?"  Jesus  placed  before  tin  m 
the  original  divine  institution  of  marriage,  and  then  pronounced, 
"What  God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder." 
Why  then,  it  was  asked,  did  Moses  allow  it?  Jesus  answered: 
"  Moses,  because  of  the  hardness  of  your  hearts,  suffered  yon 
to  put  away  your  wives ;  but  from  the  beginning  it  was  not 
MI."  (  Matt.  xix.  3 — 9.)  The  law  of  Moses  in  this  case,  as  in 
some  others,  only  attempted  to  regulate,  with  an  >mperit  c» 


Ut2  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

reteedy,  the  evil,  which  the  obstinacy  of  national  feeling  would 
not  allow  to  be  at  once  repressed  by  a  positive  statute.  This,, 
however,  was  a  provision  of  mere  civil  </<jn,-iiiti<-ut,  and  did, 
by  no  means,  as  many  <>f  the  Jews  thought,  establish  a  rule 
of  re,liy<<m,  which  might  satisfy  a  man's  conscience  in  the  pre- 
sence of  God.  Our  Lord  allowed  but  one  sufficient  cause  for 
divorce.  (Matt.  v.  32.) — Not  only  was  it  common  for  mm  to 
put  away  their  wives,  but,  in  the  latter  period  of  the  nation, 
women  not  unfrequently  divorced  their  husbands.  One  of 
Herod's  sisters  took  this  step;  and  his  grand-daughter  Hero- 
ilias  set  a  similar  example.  She  first  married  her  uncle  Phi- 
lip; after  some  time,  she  separated  herself  from  him,  and  mar- 
ried his  brother,  Herod  the  tetrarch.  (Matt.  xiv.  3.)  Drusilla, 
the  sister  of  Agrippa,  put  away,  in  like  m:>'iner,  her  first  hus- 
band, to  marry  Felix.  (Acts  xxiv.  24.) 


SECTION  II. 
OF   THE    DELATION    BETWEEN    PARENTS    AND   CHILDREN. 

FROM  the  most  ancient  times  it  was  counted,  among  the 
people  of  the  east,  a  great  misfortune,  and,  in  some  measure,  a 
reproach,  to  be  childless.  It  was  the  honour  of  families  to 
have  their  names  handed  down  in  a  long  succession  of  sons, 
from  age  to  age,  to  the  remotest  generations.  It  became,  there- 
fore, a  matter  of  highest  interest,  with  every  new  n-pivserita- 
tive  of  the  house,  that  its  genealogy  should  not  be  stopped  in 
his  person,  and  thus  the  shame  of  disappointing  the  hope  of 
all  his  ancestors  be  broiurl it  <l<>wn  UJKHI  li is  single  head.  On 
this  account,  it  was  disgraceful  to  continue  in  an  unmarried 
state;  and  as  life  has  no  security,  it  was  counted  unsafe  to  de- 
lay marriage  any  time,  lest  death  should  cut  off  the  privilege 
of  posterity :  hence,  fathers  were  anxious  to  have  their  children 
married  early.  From  the  common  feeling  on  this  subject,  arose 
also  that  strange  custom  which  required  a  man's  nearest  main 
relation  to  marry  his  wife,  in  case  he  himself  died  without 
children.  This  custom  had  existed,  with  authority  that  could 
not  be  disregarded,  a  long  time  before  the  age  of  Moses;  as  we 
learn  from  the  history  of  Judah's  sons.  (Gen.  xxxviii.  8 — 12.) 
In  the  law  of  Moses,  it  was  made  a  regular  statute  of  the 
Jewish  government.  To  prevent,  however,  its  unhappy  effect 
in  particular  instances,  where  a  great  unwillingness  to  marry  a 
brother's  widow  might  be  felt,  a  method  of  avoiding  thfi  con- 
nection was  ippoin'<  <i.  Meompaaied,  indeed,  with  some  dis- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  138 

grace,  but,  withal,  rendering  the  rule  extremely  mild,  in  com- 
parison with  its  old  form  of  inflexible  rigour.  The  whole  de- 
sign of  this  regulation  was  to  raise  up  a  succession  for  the  man 
who  died  childless,  "that  his  name  might  not  be  put  out  of 
Israel."  (Deut.  xxv.  5—10.)  Where  the  desire  of  having 
offspring  was  so  strong,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  barrenness 
in  the  married  state  would  be  considered  a  most  afflicting 
calamity.  We  have  repeated  illustrations  of  this  in  the  history 
of  the  Bible.  In  such  cases,  it  was  sometimes,  at  least  in  the 
earliest  ages,  thought  expedient  by  wives  to  give  their  maids, 
as  concubines,  to  their  husbands,  and  then  adopt  their  children 
as  their  own.  Thus  Sarah,  Rachel,  and  Leah  too,  consented 
to  act.  The  prophets  often  refer  to  this  strong  national  feeling 
in  their  figurative  pictures  of  prosperity  or  desolation.  (Isa. 
xlix.  17 — 23,  liv.  1—4,  xlvii.  9.)  In  allusion  to  the  same 
feeling,  our  Saviour  says,  in  predicting  a  time  of  dreadful  cala- 
mity, "  Behold,  the  days  are  coming,  in  the  which  they  shall 
say,  Blessed  are  the  barren,  and  the  wombs  that  never  bare, 
and  the  paps  which  never  gave  suck  !"  (Luke  xxiii.  29.) 
What  a  season  of  distress  would  such  language  represent  to 
the  cars  and  feelings  of  a  Jew  ! 

For  an  account  of  the  ceremonial  observances  which  the 
law  required  after  the  birth  of  a  son  or  a  daughter,  read  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  Leviticus.  It  was  an  evidence  of  much 
poverty  in  the  circumstances  of  Joseph  and  Mary  that  they 
could  bring  to  the  temple,  for  an  offering  of  purification,  only 
"  a  pair  of  turtle-doves  or  two  young  pigeons."  (Luke  ii. 
2'2 — 124.)  At  the  end  of  eight  days,  every  son  was  to  be  dedi- 
cated to  God  by  the  right  of  circumcision.  (Gen.  xvii.  10 — 14.) 
In  later  times,  at  least,  it  ")ecaine  common  to  give  the  child  its 
name  at  the  same  time  is  is  now  the  general  practice  ic 
Cliri.-tian  countries  when  infants  are  baptized.  (Luke  L  59, 
ii.  21.)  Names,  among  the  Jews,  were  never  without  mean- 
ing. It  was  not  uncommon  for  a  person,  as  he  advanced  in 
life,  to  change  his  first  name,  or  to  receive  a  new  one  in  addi- 
tion to  it.  Kings  and  princes  frequently  changed  the  names 
of  those  whom  they  raised  to  honour  and  power  in  their 
governments.  (Gen.  xli.  45,  2  Kings  axiii.  34,  xxiv.  17.) 
There  was  probably  some  allusion  to  this  custom,  when  God, 
as  an  expression  of  his  favour,  gave  new  names  to  Abram  and 
Jacob.  In  the  later  ages  of  the  nation,  when  the  Jews  were 
compelled  to  mingle  more  with  other  people,  and  other  lan- 
guages b<  {ran  to  creep  into  the  room  of  the  ancient  Hebrew,  it 
was  very  common  to  be  called  by  different  names ;  one  He- 
brow,  and  another  Greek  or  Latin.  Sometimes,  both  of  such 

12 


l.'!4  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

names  signified  the  same  thing;  the  one  being  a  mere  trar.ilu 
tii in  of  the  other:  so  Crphat  and  Peter — the  name  given  U 
.-  .11 1 1  >:i  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ — equally  mean  a  rock  <>r  -tone 
(.John  i.  42,  Matt.  xvi.  18.)  In  the  New  Testament,  we  find 
almost  all  the  Old  Testament  names  that  are  mentioned,  some- 
what altered;  thus  we  have  Esaias  for  Isaiah,  Elius  for  Eli- 
jah, and  many  other  such  changes,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  list 
of  names  in  the  first  chapter  of  Matthew,  and  also  in  the  third 
chapter  of  Luke.  These,  however,  were  not  intended  to  be 
tir  w  names,  of  any  sort;  they  are  merely  the  old  Hebrew  name? 
written  as  they  were  usually  pronounced  by  those  who  spoke 
Greek  according  to  the  smooth  and  soft  style  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage. In  translating  the  Greek  Testament  into  English,  these 
forms  have  crept  into  our  language  too:  though  it  certainly 
had  as  much  right  as  the  Greek  to  change  them  into  con- 
fi'imity  with  its  own  pronunciation,  according  to  the  forms  in 
which  it  seemed  best  to  express  the  original  Hebrew  names 
themselves. 

The  authority  of  a  Jewish  father,  in  his  family,  was  very 
great.  We  have  seen  already  how  absolute  it  was  in  providing 
for  the  marriage  of  a  son  or  daughter.  When  a  daughter 
married,  she  passed  entirely  into  another  family,  unless 
she  happened  to  have  no  brother,  in  which  case  she  became 
heiress  of  her  father's  estate.  (Numb,  xxvii.  1 — 9.)  A  son 
continued  to  live,  after  marriage,  in  his  father's  house;  and 
while  he  did  so,  the  father's  authority  still  rested  nj.i.n  him 
with  full  weight;  and,  at  the  same  time,  upon  the  daughter-in- 
law,  with  all  their  children.  The  whole  Scriptures  inculcat.  <1 
on  children,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  the  duty  of  afft -ctionate 
respect  and  kindness  toward  their  parents,  as  long  as  they  live. 
The  hiW  required  parents,  on  the  other  hand,  to  train  up  their 
childien,  with  the  most  unceasing  diligence,  in  the  knowledge 
of  religion  and  in  the  fear  of  God.  (Deut.  vi.  7,  xi.  19.)  The 
gospel  has  enforced  the  same  duty,  with  repeated  ail  monitions. 
What  a  fearful  account  must  many  parents  who  bear  the  Chris- 
tian name,  render  for  their  sad  neglect  of  this  matter!  Can  the 
obligation  on  such  be  less  than  that,  which,  in  the  pa.-- 
referred  to  above,  God  laid,  with  so  much  solemnity,  upon  the 
ancient  Jews?  "  To  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  him  shall 
be  much  required!" 

THE  BIRTHRIGHT. — The  frst-born  son  inherited  peculiai 
privileges.  He  received  a  double  jx>rtion  of  his  father's  estate. 
(Deut.  xxi.  17.)  He  possessed  some  authority,  similar  to  that 
of  the  father,  over  his  younger  brethren;  at  )ea.-t  when  the 
fatl  "r  was  taken  away;  and  was  regarded  with  MUIX;  p'-culm 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES,  135 

respect,  as  the  principal  representative  of  the  family  In  the 
family  of  Jacob,  as  the  first  privilege  was  given  to  Joseph,  so 
this  svoond  one  was  secured  to  Judah,  because  Reuben  had 
rendered  himself  unworthy  of  his  natural  right,  by  gross  sin. 
(1  Chron.  v.  1,2.)  Before  the  giving  of  the  law,  advantages 
of  a  kind  yet  far  more  important  belonged  to  the  birthright. 
The  oldest  son  seems  to  have  enjoyed  a  religions  pre-eminence 
over  the  rest  of  the  children,  as  well  as  a  mere  worldly  supe- 
riority. The  father  of  every  family  was  its  proper  priest,  whose 
business  it  was  to  offer  sacrifice  to  God,  in  behalf  of  his  whole 
house,  as  Job  was  accustomed  to  do.  In  case  of  his  absence 
or  death,  this  important  office,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  fell 
to  the  care  of  the  first-born  son.  It  appears,  moreover,  that 
God,  in  the  natural  order  of  his  providence  and  grace,  dis- 
tributed his  benefits  not  without  some  regard  to  this  distinction 
of  birth;  appointing  an  inseparable  connection  between  them 
and  the  father's  peculiar  solemn  blessing,  while,  in  the  esta- 
blished order  of  things,  this  blessing  came  to  be  considered  the 
proper  right  of  the  first-born.  Such,  at  least,  was  the  method 
which  the  Divine  wisdom  respected  as  regular,  in  the  case  of 
Esau  and  Reuben.  By  virtue  of  their  birthright,  they  were 
authorized  to  expect  a  large  measure  of  the  rich  BLESSING 
pronounced  on  Abraham,  to  rest  on  each  of  themselves,  and  to 
be  handed  down  continually  in  the  line  of  their  posterity,  till 
it  should,  at  last,  be  crowned  with  the  accomplishment  of  the 
Great  Promise — the  appearance  of  that  Seed  in  whom  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed.  Reuben  lost  his  na- 
tural advantage  in  this  respect  by  shameful  wickedness;  as  be- 
fore, Esau  had  sold  his  for  a  morsel  of  bread ;  thus  profanely 
despising  the  rich  spiritual  blessings  with  which  it  was  con- 
nected. The  latter  sought  the  blessing  afterwards,  "  carefully, 
with  tears;"  but  he  "found  no  place  of  repentance,"  (or  change,) 
— no  possibility  of  altering  what  was  done,  by  a  change  in  his 
father.  (Heb.  xii.  17.)  The  right  of  the  priesthood  was 
given,  by  the  law,  to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  the  religious  supe- 
riority of  the  first-born  seems  to  have  continued  no  longer. 
(Numb.  iii.  12 — 18.)  It  is  easy  to  see,  from  what  has  been 
said,  how  the  term  frst-bom  came  to  be  used  figuratively,  to 
signify  a  character  of  highest  dignity,  or  to  denote  any  thing 
of  principal  importance  in  its  kind.  "The  first-born  of  the 
poor"  are  those  who  are  pressed  with  exceeding  poverty  (Isa. 
xiv.  30.)  "The  first-born  of  death,"  is  a  death  of  uncommon 
cruelty.  (Job  xviii.  13.)  So,  to  express  the  dignity  of  the 
sjiiiit.-.  tli.  v  an-  i-allnl  "the  church  of  the  first-born."  (Hob. 
xii  -li'6.)  Christ  is  styled  the  First-born  of  God,  (Ps.  lxu.ix.27i 


136  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

Heb.  i.  6;)  also  the  "first-born  of  every  creature,"  as  bemff 
before  all  things — the  IJeirinning  and  Head  of  creat.-on,  (Col 
i.  15;)  again,  th.-  " iirst-begotten  from  the  dead,"  .1.-  being  the 
Beginning  of  the  resurrection,  and  the  Uead  of  the  whole  family 
of  believers,  who  are  yet  to  rise.  (Rev.  i.  5.) 

AUDITION. — The  practice  of  adopting  sons  has  prevailed  to 
some  extent  in  every  age,  among  different  nations.  By  this 
act,  an  entire  stranger  by  birth  might  be  received  into  a  man's 
family  as  his  own  child,  and  thus  become  entitled  to  every  pri- 
vilege which  actual  sonship  could  expect.  We  find  one  instance 
of  this  in  the  history  of  Moses;  Pharaoh's  daughter  took  him 
to  be  her  son.  (Ex.  ii.  10.)  Daughters  were  sometimes  adopted 
in  the  same  manner;  an  example  of  which  we  have  in  the  case 
of  Esther:  "When  her  father  and  mother  were  dead,  Mordecai 
took  her  for  his  own  daughter."  (Esth.  ii.  7.)  It  is  not  clear 
that  this  way  of  receiving  children  was  very  common  among 
the  Jews;  but  they  could  not  but  be  familiar  with  its  practice, 
as  it  existed  in  other  countries,  especially  in  latter  times,  when 
they  were  brought,  by  their  national  calamities,  to  mingle  so 
much  with  people  among  whom  the  custom  was  general.  The 
Scriptures,  accordingly,  make  several  allusions  to  it.  God  is 
said  to  adopt  persons  into  his  family,  when,  by  his  grace,  he 
converts  them  from  the  power  of  sin,  and  gives  them,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  a  title  to  the  rich  inheritance  of  his  people.  To 
as  many  as  receive  Christ,  is  given  power  to  become  the  sons  of 
God.  (John  i.  12.)  They  are  then  no  more  foreigners  and 
strangers,  but  fellow-citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  house- 
hold of  God.  (Eph.  ii.  19.)  The  spirit  of  adoption  is  seat 
forth  into  their  hearts,  whereby  they  cry,  Abba,  Futhrr ;  and 
they  become  assured  of  an  eternal  inheritance,  being  made  heirs 
of  God,  and  joint-heirs  with  Jesus  Christ,  (Horn,  viii.  14 — 17.) 


SECTION   III. 

OF   SLAVES. 

SLAVERY  seems  to  have  existed  before  the  flood.  Noah 
speaks  of  it  as  a  thing  well  known.  Among  the  ancient  patri- 
archs it  was  very  common.  The  servant*  of  whom  we  hear  in 
tht  history  of  their  times,  were  properly  slaves,  who  might  he. 
Sought  and  sold  without  any  regard  to  their  own  will.  Some 
.if  the  richer  shepherds,  like  Abraham  and  Job,  appear  to  have 
had  thousands  of  them  belonging  to  their  households.  The 
government  of  the  master,  however,  was  probably,  in  these 
of  the  mildest  kind ;  no  that  it  would  be  considered  • 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  137 

privilege,  by  such  as  were  not  able  to  establish  a  great,  inde- 
pendent family  for  themselves,  to  be  admitted  as  servants  into 
the  prince-like  household  of  another,  beneath  the  protection  of 
whose  power  they  might  dwell  in  safety  and  comfort.  By  the 
law  of  Moses,  no  Jew  could  be  held,  by  one  of  his  own  country- 
men,  as  a  bond-servant  or  slave  for  life.  Unless  he  himself  in- 
sisted on  staying  with  his  master,  he  became  free  after  a  service 
of  six  years ;  and  whenever  the  year  of  Jubilee  came,  all  He- 
brew servants,  whatever  had  been  their  time  of  past  service, 
were  to  be  dismissed  with  liberty,  as  a  matter  of  course.  (Ex. 
xxi.  2 — 6,  Lev.  xxv.  39 — 55.)  Strangers  might  be  kept  in 
continual  bondage.  They  were  acquired,  either  by  being  made 
captive  in  war,  or  by  purchase  :  the  children  of  servants  were, 
by  their  birth,  placed  in  the  same  state ;  these  were  distin- 
guished by  the  name  of  home-born,  or  born  in  the  house.  A 
man  might  also  become  a  servant,  on  account  of  a  debt  which 
he  could  not  pay.  (2  Kings  iv.  1,  Matt,  xviii.  25.)  Some- 
times, a  man  oppressed  with  poverty  sold  himself  to  a  mas- 
ter. The  law  denounced  sentence  of  death  against  the  person 
who  should  steal  a  fellow-being,  to  sell  him  for  a  slave.  (Ex. 
xxi.  16.) 

By  their  law,  the  Jews  were  required  to  treat  their  servants 
arith  humanity ;  and  particular  commandments  were  given,  to 
secure  for  them  several  important  privileges,  both  of  a  civil  and 
of  a  religious  kind.  (Ex.  xxi.  20,  26,  27,  xx.  10 ;  Deut.  xii. 
18,  xvi.  11.)  In  a  large  household,  the  servant  who  was  con- 
sidered most  faithful  and  discreet,  was  placed  over  the  rest,  as 
superintendent,  in  the  general  management  of  the  house.  He 
was  called  the  Steward.  Such  was  Eliezer,  in  the  house  of 
Abraham.  (Gen.  xv.  2,  xxiv.  2.)  Ministers  of  the  gospel  are 
styled,  in  thp  New  Testament,  "  Stewards  of  the  mysteries  and 
of  the  manifold  grace  of  God  j"  because  they  are  principal  ser- 
vants in  tbu  household  of  Christ,  appointed  to  watch  o\er  its 
iffairs,  ai>'l  intrusted,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  with  the  distribu- 
tion of  its  spiritual  provisions.  (1  Cor.  iv.  1,  2,  1  Pet.  iv.  10  ) 
This  is  a  trust  that  calls  for  the  greatest  diligence  and  the 
most  vigilant  care ;  unfaithfulness  in  the  discharge  of  its  du- 
ties, will  be  visited  with  dreadful  punishments.  (Matt,  xxiv 
45—51.) 

Tie  condition  of  slaves  among  the  Gentile  nations,  especially 
the  Greeks  and  the  Komans,  was  far  less  tolerable  than  among 
the  Jews.  They  were  not  supported  by  those  to  whom  they 
belonged,  and  yet  were  allowed  to  have  only  the  smallest  pri- 
vate possessions;  these,  moreover,  were  entirely  subjected  to 
the  will  of  thcMr  masters.  To  them,  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath 

12* 


138  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

never  came,  and  no  sacred  festival  interrupted  the  course  of 
thrir  labour,  with  its  regular  and  joyful  return.  Among  the 
Romans,  slaves  were  considered  no  better  than  cattle,  without 
any  civil  or  religious  right :  the  law  protected  them  with  no 
••are ;  the  master  ruled  them  with  unrestrained  authority.  For 
the  smallest  offences,  they  were  cruelly  scourged;  and  when 
the  wrath  of  the  owner  was  greatly  kindled,  he  might  cause 
them  to  suffer  a  painful  death.  The  common  way  of  inflicting 
capital  punishment  upon  slaves,  was  by  the  cross.  It  was  not 
unusual  to  brand  them  ;  sometimes,  by  way  of  punishment, 
and  often,  merely  for  the  sake  of  marking  them  with  their 
master's  *'V/»,  so  that  they  could  not  escape,  if  they  ever  wi>hed 
io  run  away.  The  brand  was  burned,  generally,  upon  the  fore- 
head, and  sometimes  on  the  hand.  Soldiers  were  frequently 
branded  on  the  hand,  in  a  similar  manner.  This  was  a  custom 
of  very  ancienl  times.  From  it,  probably,  arose  another  cus- 
tom, not  uncommon  in  idolatrous  countries,  of  receiving  a  brand 
or  mark  in  the  body,  as  a  sign  of  obedience  and  consecration  to 
some  particular  false  god.  The  Jews  were  forbidden  to  print 
any  marks  upon  themselves,  perhaps  with  reference  to  some  hea- 
then custom  of  this  kind.  (Lev.  xix.  28.)  There  is  allusion  to 
the  practice,  in  the  book  of  Revelation :  "  He  caused  all,  both 
small  and  great,  rich  and  poor,  free  and  bond,  to  receive  a  mark 
in  their  riyht  hand  or  in  their  furehcuds."  ^Ilev.  xiii.  16.) 
The  apostle  alludes  to  the  custom  of  branding  slaves,  in  his 
epistle  to  the  Galatiany:  "I  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  (or 
brands)  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  (Gal.  vi.  17.)  These  marks  were 
the  scars  of  wounds,  received  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  which, 
wherever  he  went,  si  owed  him  to  be  the  property  of  that  glo- 
rious Master 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
DISEASES  AND  FUNERAL  CUSTOMS. 

SECTION  I. 
OF    DISEASES. 

SICKNESS  and  death  are  the  melancholy  fruit  of  sin.  Were 
there  no  sin  in  the  universe,  there  would  be  in  it  neither  pain 
nor  sorrow.  The  innumerable  forms  of  suffering  that  crowd 
upon  human  experience,  in  this  world,  are  but  innumerable 
signs  of  guilt  in  the  sight  of  a  holy  God.  Death  entered  into 
the  world  by  sin,  and  furnishes  the  sad  evidence  of  that  most 
awful  evil,  wherever  it  is  found.  ('Rom.  v.  12 — 14.)  It  was, 
thm-tore,  no  vain  imagination,  wnich  led  the  ancient  Israel- 
ites to  refer  their  diseases  to  the  displeasure  of  God ;  for  al- 
though they  come,  for  the  most  part,  according  to  the  laws  of 
nature,  without  any  miraculous  interference  of  the  Almighty, 
we  are  to  remember  that  those  laws  have  no  necessity  ex- 
cept in  His  appointment,  and  that  His  appointment,  in  thif 
case,  has,  from  the  beginning,  flowed,  according  to  his  OWD 
word,  from  holy  indignation  against  sin.  Hence,  Moses,  the 
man  of  God,  in  the  beautiful  Psalm  which  he  composed  on  the 
subject  of  human  frailty  and  mortality,  ascribes  all  to  this  la- 
mentable source  :  "  Thou  turnest  man  to  destruction,  and  say- 
est,  Return,  ye  children  of  men.  Thou  earnest  them  away  as 
with  a  flood ;  they  are  as  a  sleep  !  In  the  morning,  they  are 
like  grass  which  groweth  up :  in  the  morning  it  flourisheth 
and  groweth  up;  in  the  evening,  it  is  cut  down,  and  wither- 
eth  !  Far  we  are  consumed  by  thine  anger,  and  by  thy  wrath 
are  we  troubled.  Thou  hast  set  our  iniquities  before  theet  our 
secret  sins  in  the  light  of  thy  countenance.  For  all  our  <luys 
are  passed  away  in  thy  wrath  "  (Ps.  xc.  3 — 12.)  In  like  man- 
ner, David  piously  acknowledges  the  hand  of  God :  "  1  was 
dumb,  and  opened  not  my  mouth,  because  Thou  didst  it !  Re- 
move thy  stroke  away  from  me  :  I  am  consumed  by  the  blow 
ti/'tlii/H-  /nun/!  When  Thou  with  rebukes  dost  correct  man 
for  iniquity,  Thou  makest  his  beauty  to  consume  away  like  a 
moth  !"  (Ps.  xxxix.  9—11.) 

But,  besides  the  ordinary  diseases  which,  in  the  righteous 
providence  of  God,  were  appointed  to  be  the  natural  and  yene* 


140  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

mi  scotu^s  of  human  depravity  among  tiie  Jews,  a*  among  all 
other  people,  there  were  others  of  a  more  <-.rtrn»nlinnrii  and 
peculiar  kind,  which  they  were  taught  to  ascribe  to  no  natural 
source  whatever,  but  to  the  direct  power  of  some  unseen  and 
unearthly  agency.  Sometimes,  the  finger  of  the  Almighty  was 
put  forth,  to  blast,  as  it  were,  by  ita  immediate  touch,  the 
vigour  of  health  and  life.  More  commonly,  however,  an  infe- 
rior ministry  was  employed  to  execute  his  will.  Either  an 
angel,  rejoicing  to  do  his  commandments,  rushed  from  his 
presence  on  the  errand  of  judgment  and  wrath;  or  some  foul 
spirit  of  hell,  permitted  in  his  holy  counsels  to  pass  over  the 
common  boundaries  of  its  restraint,  went  forth  with  malicious 
satisfaction,  and  inflicted  the  heavy  stroke.  In  Egypt,  at  the 
dead  hour  of  midnight,  Jehovah  went  through  the  land,  and 
smote  all  the  first-born,  "from  the  first-born  of  Pharaoh  that 
sat  on  his  throne,  unto  the  first-born  of  the  captive  that  was  in 
the  dungeon;  and  all  the  first-born  of  cattle."  (Ex.  xii.  23,  29.) 
So  in  the  days  of  David,  we  are  informed  that  the  Lord  sent 
a  pestilence  upon  Israel,  which  destroyed  seventy  thousand 
men  as  it  passed  over  the  land.  This  was  no  natural  plague; 
the  angel  of  the  Almighty  was  sent  forth  to  accomplish  iti 
destruction,  and  was  discovered  to  the  guilty  monarch  himscli, 
standing  between  earth  and  heaven,  with  a  drawn  sword  iv 
his  hand,  stretched  out  over  Jerusalem.  (1  Chron.  xxi 
12 — 16.)  Thus  also  in  the  camp  of  the  impious  Sennacherib 
an  angel  smote,  in  one  night,  an  hundred  and  eighty-five  tli'm 
sand  men,  so  that  "in  the  morning  they  were  all  dead  corpses." 
(2  Kings  xix.  35.)  In  much  later  times,  Herod,  because  hi 
gave  not  glory  to  God,  was  smitten  by  an  angel's  hand,  and 
in  consequence,  was  eaten  of  worms,  so  as  to  give  up  the 
ghost.  (Acts  xii.  23.)  We  have  an  example  of  the  agency  of 
evil  spirits,  in  the  case  of  Job,  whom  Satan,  by  permission  of 
God,  afflicted  with  sorest  disease.  Saul,  the  first  king  of  Israel, 
was  troubled  greatly  by  a  i  evil  spirit  from  the  Lord.  But  in 
the  time  of  our  Saviour,  an  unusual  liberty  seems  to  have  been 
given  to  the  devil  and  his  angels.  They  were  suffered,  in  a 
great  number  of  cases,  to  take  complete  possession  of  the 
bodies  of  men,  to  govern  them  according  to  their  own  will, 
and  distress  them  with  various  forms  of  painful  and  unhappy 
disease. 

The  unfortunate  person  with  whom  one  or  more  of  these 
unclean  spirits  thus  took  up  a  residence,  was  deprived,  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  of  the  free  use  of  his  natural  powers. 
Sometimes,  particular  organs  of  his  body  were  entirely  re- 
nrained  from  doing  their  office :  thus  he  became  deaf;  or  dumb 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  141 

>r  blind,  or  afflicted  with  other  similar  calamities.  At  other 
i  hues,  the  spirit  itself  acted  through  the  organs  of  the  sufferer, 
so  that  he  only  seemed  to  act,  and  in  reality,  had  no  control 
whatever  over  the  movements  of  his  own  body.  Thus,  when 
a  person  possessed  with  a  devil  appeared  to  speak,  it  was  often 
tin-  case  that  he  himself  had  not  the  smallest  agency  in  pro- 
ducing the  words  or  the  sound;  his  organs  of  speech  were 
iiiiivcd  altogether  by  the  demon  within,  so  as  to  utter  what  it 
pleased.  So,  in  like  manner,  the  wretched  demoniac  was  fre- 
quently driven,  by  a  force  which  he  had  no  disposition  or  power 
of  himself  to  exert,  into  the  most  extravagant  and  unruly  ac- 
tions. We  read  of  such  being  compelled  to  go  forth  into  wild 
and  lonely  places,  and  take  up  their  abode  in  the  tombs,  with- 
out house  and  without  clothing;  and  from  these  desolate  hiding 
places  they  rushed  forth  with  amazing  strength,  on  all  that 
passed  by  that  way,  handling  them  with  the  greatest  violence : 
neither  could  they  be  kept  with  chains  and  fetters;  but,  with 
prodigious  power,  they  would  break  them,  and  rush  forth  again 
to  the  wilderness,  hurried  away  by  the  unholy  spirit.  Of  an- 
other, we  read  that  the  spirit  often  caused  him  to  fall  into  the 
fire  and  into  the  water,  or  threw  him  down  and  tare  him  with 
exceeding  cruelty.  We  are  not  to  suppose,  however,  that  the 
evil  was  confined,  in  all  cases  of  possession,  merely  to  the  body  ; 
or  that,  while  this  was  actuated  like  a  machine,  in  some  in- 
stances, by  the  unclean  spirit,  the  mind  of  the  sufferer  was 
always  free  from  disorder.  This,  also,  not  unfrequently,  per- 
haps always  in  some  degree,  seems  to  have  fallen  under  the 
satanic  influence.  Sometimes,  it  was  brought  under  the 
power  of  a  deep  and  wretched  melancholy,  which  destroyed  its 
energy  and  spoiled  its  social  sympathies,  and  stamped  upon  the 
outward  visage  the  expression  of  sullen  and  settled  gloom.  At 
other  times,  a  more  wild  insanity  seized  upon  the  soul ;  ma- 
lignant and  hateful  passions  burst  forth  without  control;  and, 
occasionally,  a  fierce  ungovernable  phrcnsy  carried  its  derange- 
ment through  the  whole  inward  man,  and  drove  him  to  the 
utmost  extreme  of  extravagance  and  madness.  Hence,  one 
person  who  was  under  the  power  of  an  unclean  spirit,  is  called, 
in  the  New  Testament,  a  lunatic.  (Matt.  xvii.  15,  compared 
with  Luke  ix.  3H — 40.)  And  of  another  it  is  said,  that  he  was 
found,  after  the  demons  had  been  cast  out  by  the  command  of 
Christ,  sitting  "  clothed  and  in  hi*  right  mind."  (Mark  v.  15.) 
From  the  fact  that  persons  possessed  with  devils  were  generally 
more  or  less  disordered  in  mind,  in  the  different  ways  we  have 
mentioned  above,  it  became  common  to  ascribe  to  the  same 
source,  bv  way  of  reproach  and  scoff,  any  language  or  conduot 


142  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

in  anoiher  uliich  seomed  unreasonable  or  absurd.  Thus  tb 
phrase  to  have  a  devil,  was  often  used  to  signify  that  the  per- 
son of  whom  it  was  said  acted  in  a  strange,  offensive  manner, 
or  talked  with  extravagance  and  nonsense;  as  we  say  of  a  man 
in  such  cases,  he.  dreams;  lie,  rave*;  he  has  lo$  his  sensrg  ;  hf 
i*  crazy,  &c.  When  John  the  Baptist  came,  with  his  austere 
manuer,  refusing  to  taste  the  common  enjoyments  of  social 
life,  and  rigorously  confining  himself  to  the  simplest  and  most 
frugal  diet,  many  of  the  Jews  said :  "  He  hath  a  devil."  His 
conduct  appeared  to  them  unreasonable  and  unlovely,  savouring 
of  the  unsociable  melancholy  which  often  hung  over  the  demo- 
niac's mind,  and  led  him  to  delight  in  wild,  uncomfortable 
solitude,  more  than  in  the  society  of  men.  (Matt.  xi.  18.) 
So,  also,  on  one  occasion,  they  said  to  our  Saviour,  "Thou  hast 
a  devil :"  meaning  to  charge  him  with  falsehood  and  nonsense. 
On  another,  some  of  them  exclaimed,  "He  hath  a  devil,  and 
is  mad;  why  hear  ye  him?"  (John  vii.  20,  x.  20.) 

.Many  of  our  Saviour's  miracles,  while  on  earth,  were 
wrought  for  the  deliverance  of  persons  who  were  suffering  un- 
der the  dominion  of  evil  spirits.  He  cast  them  out  by  a  word. 
The  same  power  he  gave  likewise  to  his  disciples;  and  for  some 
considerable  time  after  his  departure  from  the  world,  devils 
were  compelled,  by  the  authority  of  his  name,  to  come  out  of 
multitudes  into  whom  they  had  entered.  There  were,  at  the 
same  time,  a  class  of  persons  among  the  Jews,  who  pretended 
to  cast  out  devils  by  various  kinds  of  incantations  and  drugs. 
These  were  called  A'/o/v/s/s.  Such  were  the  seven  sons  of 
Sceva,  a  principal  priest,  and  certain  other  vagabond  Jews  of 
Ephesus,  who  took  upon  them  to  use  the  name  of  Jesus,  as  a 
mere  charm,  for  this  purpose.  (Acts  xix.  13 — 16.)  It  was  to 
this  class  of  men  among  the  Jews,  that  our  Lord  referred,  in 
that  question  to  the  Pharisees:  "If  I  by  Beelzebub  cast  out 
devils,  by  whom  do  your  children  cast  them  out?"  (Matt, 
xii.  27.) 

On  the  subject  of  those  extraordinary  visitations  of  sickness 
and  death,  which,  as  we  learn  from  the  Bible,  God  has  at  times 
sent  upon  men,  by  an  instrumentality  more  than  natural,  it 
way  be  remarked,  that  the  calamity  did  not,  in  all  such  cases, 
approach  under  some  strange  and  unheard-of  form,  or  without 
any  appearance  of  natural  disorder,  so  that  the  touch  of  an  in- 
visible hand  might  be  clearly  manifest.  In  many  instances, 
no  doubt,  the  secret  agency  was  exerted  simply  to  produce 
Home  violent  and  desperate  disease,  which,  on  other  occasions 
sprang  from  a  purely  natural  cause,  and  which  would  effectually 
accomplish  the  intended  purpose.  To  the  eyes  of  men,  there- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  14b 

fore,  an  individual  might  sometimes  seem  to  be  sickiug  undei 
futal  sickness,  without  any  thin;:  miraculous,  whiie,  in  reality, 
the  supernatural  stroke  of  Heaven  was  crushing  him  to  the 
grave.  Thus  when  the  angel  smote  Herod,  it  is  probable  that 
his  friends  and  attendants  ascribed  the  calamity  to  a  mere  natu- 
ral di.sease  which  was  not  very  uncommon  in  the  east:  it  was 
enough  that  the  persecuted  followers  of  Christ  could  discover 
the  operation  of  a  higher  hand,  and  perceive  the  glory  of  Zion's 
God,  in  the  awful  but  righteous  judgment.  And  is  it  unrea- 
sonable to  suppose  that  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  may  still 
move,  at  times,  in  the  same  mysterious  way,  to  accomplish  hia 
holy  purpose  ?  May  not  the  angel  of  destruction,  as  in  ancient 
years,  still  go  forth  occasionally  from  before  the  Eternal  Throne, 
on  his  errand  of  vengeance  and  death  ?  Who  will  undertake 
to  say  that  the  profane  and  licentious  sinner,  cut  off  so  gene- 
rally in  the  midst  of  his  days,  is  in  no  case  taken  away  by  the 
unseen  stroke  of  such  a  messenger?  It  matters  not  that  the 
sword  of  wrath  is  not  openly  revealed,  glittering  over  its  victim 
or  sinking  into  his  bosom,  and  that  the  thoughtless  crowd  will 
not  perceive  the  judgment  of  a  righteous  God;  there  may  be, 
still,  a  sufficient  manifestation  of  His  presence,  to  leave  the 
ungodly  without  excuse,  in  refusing  to  notice  the  operation  of 
his  hands,  while  the  righteous  and  the  truly  wise  are  led  to 
consider  and  understand.  There  may  be,  too,  a  reason  for  such 
an  extraordinary  interposition  in  the  holy  character  of  Jehovah 
himself,  which,  without  respect  to  the  display  of  his  justice  in 
the  eyes  of  men,  may  require  unusual,  and,  as  it  were,  un- 
tinu'ly  dispensations  of  wrath,  in  cases  of  uncommon  transgres- 
sion ;  thus,  also,  the  guilt  of  the  offender  may  receive  its  more 
appropriate  recompense  in  the  appalling  dismay  which  must 
seize  upon  his  soul,  on  finding  himself  thus  dragged,  as  it  were, 
by  the  grasp  of  his  Maker,  before  his  insulted  throne. 

From  the  representation  which  has  just  been  given,  it  ap- 
pears  that  no  absolute  and  marked  distinction,  as  to  appearance 
and  character,  existed  universally,  between  maladies  of  a  mere- 
ly natural  kind,  sent  in  the  general  providence  of  God,  and 
those  which  proceeded  from  the  direct  and  extraordinary 
stroke  of  his  power.  Any  fatal  disease  might  become  the 
channel  of  the  Divine  displeasure,  as  it  flowed  thus,  in  its  un- 
wontcd  stream,  from  the  Fountain  of  holiness  and  truth. 
Still,  there  were  certain  forms  of  disorder  more  generally  em- 
ployed lor  this  purpose  than  others.  On  this  acconnt,  these 
came  to  be  associated,  in  a  jx-cnliar  manner,  with  the  idea  of 
anger  and  judgment  from  Heaven,  and  were  commonly  con- 
sidered to  proceed  from  the  presence  of  God,  if  not  altogether 


144  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

with  miraculous  visitation,  yet  at  least  with  more  direct  and 
special  appointment  than  the  other  ordinary  calamities  of  life. 
Such,  in  a  particular  manner,  were  the  Pestilence  and  the 
L<  proxy. 

THE  PESTILENCE,  or  Plague,  is  a  terrible  distemper,  known 
in  the  east  from  the  earliest  ages  down  to  the  present  time. 
It  arises  from  a  poisoned  condition  of  the  air,  and,  while  it 
lasts,  scatters  desolation  and  death  over  the  whole  region  of  its 
influence.  The  symptoms  of  the  disorder  are  painful  and  vio- 
lent, commencing  generally  with  cold  shivering  of  the  frame. 
Soon  a  burning  fever  succeeds,  with  distrcssini:  j>:iiu  about  the 
heart,  and  swelling  in  the  flesh.  All  is  quickly  trrmiuatnl, 
in  most  cases,  with  miserable  death,  which  comes  often  in  a 
few  hours,  and,  at  the  farthest,  after  two  or  three  days.  The 
plague  has  sometimes  raged,  at  one  time,  over  different  coun- 
tries, for  several  thousand  miles  in  extent ;  thus  the  whole  of 
Asia,  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  and  a  large  portion  of  Africa, 
(making  up  the  principal  part  of  the  inhabited  world,)  have  been 
wasted  at  once,  with  the  awful  scourge.  Nor  has  it,  in  every 
case,  endured  but  for  a  season  or  a  single  year ;  for  fifteen 
years  together  its  ravages  have  been  felt ;  and  on  one  occasion, 
as  history  relates,  the  whole  period  of  half  a  century  was  dis- 
tinguished by  the  long  havoc  of  a  wide-spread  pestilence.  The 
pestilence  was  frequently  employed  by  God,  in  the  execution 
of  his  extraordinary  judgments.  (Num.  xi.  33,  xvi.  45 — 50, 
xxv.  9.)  The  destruction  of  the  Israelites,  in  the  time  of  David, 
by  the  hand  of  the  angel,  was  accomplished,  as  we  are  told,  in 
the  way  of  a  pestilence.  (2  Sam.  xxiv.  13,  15.)  It  was  pro- 
bably by  the  same  method  of  destruction,  that  the  Assyrian 
camp  was  so  dreadfully  spoiled,  in  the  days  of  Hezekiah.  We 
are  not  to  imagine*,  however,  that  the  plague,  in  Scripture, 
always  means  this  particular  disease,  called  the  pestilence.  It 
is  frequently  used  to  signify  any  great  calamity  whatever. 
Such  are  the  plagues  mentioned  in  the  book  of  Revelation. 
Any  rapid,  desolating  destruction  might  well  be  called  a 
plague. 

THK  LEPROSY. — It  should  be  matter  of  thankfulness  with 
us,  that  this  loathsome  and  afflicting  disease  is  not  known  to 
•is,  except  by  report  from  other  times  or  from  other  regions  of 
the  world.  It  has  always  been  peculiar  to  warm  climates, 
and  in  such,  especially  in  Egypt  and  other  regions  of  the  East, 
it  is  still  found,  agreeing,  in  all  its  general  symptoms,  with  the 
description  of  its  ancient  character,  as  left  in  the  IJible  by 
Moses.  The  disease  seems  to  commence  deep  in  the  system 
of  the  body,  and  generally  acquires  a  thorough  settlement  in 


BIBJICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  145 

the*  person  of  its  victim,  before  it  di^-overs  itself  on  the  outward 
akin.  It  may  lie  thus  concealed,  even  for  a  number  of  years ; 
especially  when  it  is  seated  in  the  constitution  by  birth,  as  it 
often  is,  when  it  does  not  commonly  unfold  its  outward  symp- 
toms, until  the  child  is  grown  up  to  years  of  maturity.  After 
its  appearance  too,  it  does  not  proceed  with  any  rapid  ruin. 
Not  until  a  number  of  years,  does  it  reach  its  full  perfection 
of  disorder ;  and  not  until  a  number  more  have  passed  away, 
does  this  disorder  terminate  in  death.  A  leprous  person  may 
live  twenty  or  thirty,  or  if  he  receives  the  disease  with  his 
birth,  forty  or  e\  'n  fifty  years;  but  years  of  such  dreadful 
misery  must  they  be,  that  early  death  might  seem  to  be  better 
The  horrible  malady  advances  with  slow  but  certain  steps,  from 
one  stage  of  evil  to  another,  diffusing  its  poison  through  the 
whole  frame,  while  the  principle  of  life  is  still  suffered  to  lin- 
ger in  the  midst  of  the  desolation ;  and  one  after  another  the 
pillars  of  strength  are  secretly  undermined  and  carried  away, 
till  the  spirit  finds,  ere  yet  she  can  escape  from  its  imprison- 
ment, the  bouse  of  her  earthly  tabernacle  literally  crumbling, 
on  every  side,  into  dissolution  and  dust.  The  bones  and  the 
marrow  are  pervaded  with  the  disease,  so  that  the  joints  of  the 
hands  and  feet  gradually  lose  their  powers,  and  the  limbs  of  the 
body  fall  together  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  a  most  deformed 
and  dreadful  appearance  to  the  whole  person.  There  is  a  form 
of  the  disorder,  known  in  some  places,  in  which  the  joints,  be- 
ginning with  the  furthest  of  the  fingers  and  toes,  one  after  an- 
other separate  and  fall  off,  and  the  miserable  sufferer  slowly  falls 
in  pieces  to  the  grave.  Outwardly,  the  leprosy  discovers  itself 
in  a  number  of  small  spots,  which  generally  appear  first  on  the 
face,  about  the  nose  and  eyes,  but  after  some  time  on  other 
parts  of  the  body,  till  it  is  all  covered  over.  At  first  these  spots 
have  the  appearance  of  small  reddish  pimples,  but  they  gradu- 
ally spread  i-i  sizo,  till  after  some  years  they  become  as  lar^c 
as  a  pea  or  bean,  in  the  surface  which  they  cover.  When 
scratched,  af  their  itchy  character  constantly  solicits,  a  thin 
moisture  oozes  out  of  them,  which  soon  dries  and  hardens  into 
a  scaly  crust;  so  that,  when  the  disease  reaches  its  perfect 
Btate,  the  whole  body  becomes  covered  with  a  foul,  whitish 
scurf.  Particular  directions  were  given  in  the  law  of  Moses,  to 
distinguish  the  spot  of  the  real  leprosy  from  others,  that  might 
resemble  it  in  appearance.  These  are  contained  in  the  thir- 
teenth chapter  of  Leviticus. 

There  are  various  kinds  of  leprosy,  some,  more  malignant 
and  loathsome  than  others.  According  to  the  appearance  of  its 
spots,  it  is  called  by  different  names.  There  is  a  white,  a  block, 


146  BILLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

and  a  red  leprosy.  It  has  been  generally  supposed,  that  on« 
of  ite  most  dreadful  and  disgusting  forms  was  selected  bj 
Satan,  when  he  smote  righteous  Job  "  with  sore  boils,  from  tlie 
pole  of  his  foot  unto  his  crown ;"  «o  that  "  he  took  him  a  pot- 
gherd  to  scrape  himself  withal,  and  sat  down  among  the  ashes," 
in  deep  distress.  How  horrible  and  dismal  must  have  been  the 
ruin,  wrought  in  his  person  by  that  deforming  distemper,  when 
his  friends  wei-e  unable  to  recognise  his  appearance ;  "  they 
lifted  up  their  eyes  afar  off,  and  knew  him  not !"  They  were 
overwhelmed  with  the  picture  of  misery ;  "  they  lifted  up  their 
voice  and  wept;  and  they  rent  every  one  his  mantle,  and 
sprinkled  dust  on  their  heads,  toward  heaven.  So  they  sat 
down  with  him  upon  the  ground,  seven  days  and  seven  nights, 
and  none  spake  a  word  unto  him  ;  for  they  saw  that  his  grief 
was  ver}  great !"  Who  can  read,  without  emotion,  the  strong 
and  affecting  language,  in  which  the  sufferer  himself  deseribes 
his  calamity,  and  pours  forth  the  complaints  which  it  wrung 
from  his  bosom  !  u  0  that  my  grief  were  thoroughly  weighed, 
and  my  calamity  laid  in  the  balances  together!  For  now  it 
would  be  heavier  than  the  sand  of  the  sea  :  therefore  my  words 
are  swallowed  up.  For  the  arrows  of  the  Almighty  are  within 
me,  the  poison  whereof  drinketh  up  my  spirit;  the  terrors  of 
God  do  set  themselves  in  array  against  me  ! — I  am  made  to  pos- 
sess months  of  vanity,  and  wearisome  nights  are  appointed  to 
me.  When  I  lie  down,  I  say,  When  shall  I  arisr,  and  the  night 
be  gone  1  and  I  am  full  of  tossings  to  and  fro,  unto  the  dawn- 
ing of  the  day.  My  flesh  is  clothed  with  worms  and  clods  of 
the  dust ;  my  skin  is  broken  and  become  loathsome. — My 
kinsfolk  have  failed,  and  my  familiar  friends  have  forgotten  me. 
They  that  dwell  in  my  house,  and  my  maids,  count  me  for  a 
stranger ;  I  am  an  alien  in  their  sight !  I  called  my  servant, 
and  he  gave  me  no  answer;  I  entreated  him  with  my  mouth. 
My  breath  is  strange  to  my  wife,  though  I  entreated  for  the 
children's  sake  of  mine  own  btdy  !  Have  pity  upon  me,  have 
pity  upon  me,  0  ye  my  friei<ds,  for  the  hand  of  God  hath 
touched  me  ?" 

This  shocking  disease  is  contagious ;  so  that  it  is  dangerous 
to  have  much  intercourse  with  leprous  persons.  On  this  ac- 
count, it  was  wisely  ordered  among  the  Jews,  that  such  should 
dwell  alone,  "all  the  days  wherein  the  plague  should  be  in 
them,"  and  should  be  held  unclean,  so  that  no  one  might  touch 
them  without  defilement. — Hence  too,  it  was  so  strictly  en- 
joined, that  the  earliest  appearance  of  any  thing  like  the  spot 
of  leprosy  should  be  immediately  and  thoroughly  examined 
The  leper,  in  whom  the  plague  was  ascertained  really  to  exwt , 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  147 

*as  ipquired  also  to  distinguish  himself,  by  having  his  clothes 
rent,  his  head  bare,  and  his  lip  covered,  (all  of  which  were 
common  signs  of  deep  sorrow ;)  and  to  warn  others  from  coin- 
ing near  him,  by  crying  out,  Cndcan  !  unclean!  (Lev.  xiii. 
}•>,  4<».)  The  leprosy  is  still  more  fearful,  as  it  may  be  handed 
down  from  one  generation  to  another  by  birth.  The  leprosy 
of  a  father  descends  to  his  son  and  even  to  his  grand-children 
of  the  third  and  fourth  generations,  assuming  indeed  a  milder 
form,  as  it  passes  down,  but  still  showing  some  of  its  dis- 
agreeable effects,  in  each  successive  case. 

The  leprosy  was  regarded,  among  the  Jews,  as  a  disease 
seat,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  from  the  hand  of  God,  and  de- 
signed to  mark  his  displeasure  against  some  great  sin,  found 
in  the  person  who  suffered  its  affliction.  Nor  was  this  idea 
without  some  support,  in  the  dispensations  of  judgment  which 
their  history  recorded,  and  in  the  especial  solemnity  with  which 
that  disease  is  noticed  in  the  Levitical  law.  When  Miriam 
was  punished  for  reproaching  Moses,  she  was  miraculously 
smitten  with  this  malady  in  its  full  state.  So  when  Gehazi 
sinned,  the  hateful  scurf  settled  like  snow  upon  his  body,  at 
the  word  of  the  prophet,  and  its  plague  descended  to  his  seed 
after  him.  Thus  also,  when  Uzziah  the  king  profanely  under- 
took to  burn  incense  in  the  house  of  God,  the  leprosy  burst 
out  on  his  forehead,  in  the  very  act.  (Numb.  xii.  10,  2  Kings 
v.  27,  2  Chron.  xxvi.  16,  23.)  No  medicines  appear  t<>  have 
been  employed  for  its  cure ;  the  sufferer  looked  for  relief,  to 
the  compassion  of  God,  without  hope  from  the  remedies  of 
human  skill.  When  it  pleased  the  Almighty  to  heal  a  leper, 
the  law  appointed  very  peculiar  ceremonies  to  be  observed,  for 
his  cleansing ;  as  may  be  seen  by  reading  the  fourteenth  chap 
ter  of  Leviticus.  Our  Saviour  was  careful  to  remind  such, 
when  he  restored  them  to  health,  of  their  duty  in  this  respect, 
bidding  them  to  show  themselves  to  the  priest,  and  offer  the 
commanded  gift.  (Matt.  viii.  4,  Mark  i.  44,  Luke  xvii.  14.) 

The  leprosy,  in  the  peculiar  character  which  it  held  under 
the  ceremonial  system  of  the  Jews,  as  well  as  in  its  natural 
features  of  horror,  was  a  striking  emblem  of  the  evil  of  sin. 
Tliis  great  moral  disease  fixed  itself,  with  like  strong  hold,  in 
the  constitution  of  the  soul,  and  spread  its  awful  poison  through 
its  whole  nature.  The  grace  of  sj  iritual  life  and  health  withers 
before  its  defiling  contagion  ;  loathsome  and  abominable  ulcers 
break  forth  in  every  part,  leaving  no  vestige  of  soundness  or 
Ivauty  ;  and  the  universal  system  sinks  into  disorder  and  ine- 
luncholy  wreck,  proceeding  from  one  woful  stage  of  ruin  still 
onward  to  another  and  a  worse.  This  is  the  true  u 


148  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

plague,  which  separates  the  soul  from  the  presence  "f  God 
and  shuts  it  out  from  the  glorious  camp  of  Heaven;  which 
calls  for  deepest  lamentation,  and  sorrow,  and  forbids  every 
feeling  of  solid  contentment  or  peace.  The  undcanii— s  the 
separation  from  the  earthly  congregation  of  Israel,  and  the 
sorrow  and  shame  which  the  law  appointed  in  cases  of  natural 
leprosy,  were  but  typical  shadows  of  these  far  more  moment- 
ous things.  So  were  the  ceremonies  of  purification,  which  it 
prescribed,  but  emblematic  images  of  that  great  mysterious 
method  of  mercy,  whereby  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  purges 
the  conscience  from  dead  works,  so  that  the  sinner  may  draw 
near  to  the  living  God  with  acceptance.  (Heb.  ix.  13,  14.) 
This  disorder  will  not  yield  to  the  medicines  of  human  art  ; 
it  cannot  be  cured  by  any  other  than  a  Divine  power.  The  blood 
of  Christ  alone  can  cleanse  from  its  deep  pollution;  his  Spirit 
only  can  destroy  its  malignant  force.  To  him  the  soul  must 
come,  like  the  leper  of  old,  casting  itself  down  at  his  feet  and 
crying,  "  Lord,  if  thou  wilt,  Thou  canst  make  me  clean  !"  He 
is  still  ready  to  answer,  with  that  transporting  word,  "I  will ; 
be  thou  clean." 

Of  the  other  diseases  which  were  oommon  at  different  times 
among  the  Jews,  it  is  not  necessary  to  say  any  thing.  They 
were  less  remarkable  in  their  chancier,  and  generally  such  as 
are  not  uncommon  in  other  parts  of  the  world  at  the  present 
day,  if  not  exactly  under  the  saire  form,  yet  with  no  material 
difference. 

In  the  time  of  Christ,  it  was  the  custom,  in  many  eas<--,  t<> 
anoint  tin-  sick  with  oil.  This  was  counted  a  remedy  in  some 
particular  diseases,  and  was  originally  applied  merely  on  ac- 
count of  its  natural  healing  power.  It  came,  however,  to  be 
abused  by  the  Jews,  as  a  magical  charm.  That  people,  in 
later  ag->,  gave  themselves  up  very  much  to  the  folly  of  en- 
chantments and  superstitious  rites  of  various  kinds;  some 
such  form  of  sorcery  seems  to  have  grown  into  use,  in  making 
applications  of  oil  to  the  sick,  whereby  it  was  thought  the 
remedy  would  be  rendered  poverful  and  certain.  When  the 
disciples  of  our  Lord  were  sent  forth,  they  thought  proper  not 
to  neglect  tliis  common  sign  of  healing,  although  the  cures 
which  they  performed  were  altogether  miraculous;  "they  an- 
ointed with  oil  many  that  were  sick  and  healed  them."  (Marl- 
\ 5.  ]'•'•.}  So  the  apostle  James  di reels  the  elders,  to  pray  over 
(lie  sick,  "anointing  him  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lor.l  ;" 
\iy  which  he  means,  that  //•////,  th-'v  observe  the  customary 
usage,  in  this  matter,  they  should  d<>  it  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
»nd  with  prayer  to  him  for  healing  power,  when  his  blc.-- 


Miiiiruii 


p.  H9 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  149 

ought  be  expected  to  raise  the  sick  to  life  and  health.  (James 
v.  14.)  There  might  be,  perhaps,  in  the  exhortation,  a  refer- 
ence to  the  superstitious  manner  in  which  the  Jews  sought  to 
render  the  application  effectual  j  as  if  he  had  said,  "  Be  ye  not 
like  unto  them." — "  I  show  unto  you  a  more  excellent  way." 


SECTION  II. 

CUSTOMS   WHICH   ATTENDED    DEATH    AND    BURIALS. 

WHEN  a  person  died,  some  one  of  his  nearest  friends  im- 
mediately closed  his  eyes.  The  relations  rent  their  garments, 
from  the  neck  downward  in  front  to  the  girdle,  and  a  cry  of 
lamentation  and  sorrow  tilled  the  room.  This  continued,  burst- 
ing forth  at  intervals,  until  the  corpse  was  carried  away  from 
the  house.  In  many  cases,  the  ceremonies  of  grief  lasted  eight 
days;  for  kings  or  other  persons  of  distinguished  rank,  the 
time  was  extended  commonly  to  a  whole  mouth,  or  thirty  da/s. 
(Numb.  xx.  29,  Deut.  xxxiv.  8.)  It  was  usual,  at  the  death 
of  individuals  of  any  importance,  to  employ  some  women  to 
act  as  mourners  on  the  occasion  These  were  not  friends  of 
the  deceased,  but  persons  whose  professed  business  it  was  to 
conduct  the  ceremonies  of  wailing  and  lamentation,  whenever 
they  were  wanted,  and  who  received  always  some  compensa- 
tion for  their  services.  They  chanted,  in  doleful  strains,  the 
virtues  of  the  dead,  thus  raising,  to  a  higher  pitch,  the  sorrow- 
ful feelings  of  the  relations,  and  causing  them  to  find  relief  in 
floods  of  gushing  tears.  Such  were  the  mourn  fn</  women  of 
whom  the  prophet  speaks,  in  his  pathetic  lamentation  over  the 
miseries  that  were  coming  on  his  country.  (Jer.  ix.  17 — 20, 
Amos  v.  16.)  These  waitings  were  often  accompanied  with 
some  melancholy  music  of  instruments.  (Matt.  ix.  23.)  The 
company  of  mourners  did  not  confine  their  songs  of  lamenta- 
tion to  the  house  ;  when  the  funeral  procession  moved  to  the 
grave,  they  accompanied  it,  all  the  way,  filling  the  air  with  sad- 
ness, and  compelling  others  to  weep  with  their  mournful  sounds. 
The  children  in  the  streets  sometimes  imitated  these  cere- 
monies in  their  playful  sports ;  as  we  learn  from  that  compari- 
son employed  by  our  Saviour,  \h  which  children  are  represented 
as  complaining  to  their  fellows,  in  the  markets  or  public  places, 
that  they  would  not  bear  their  part  in  any  play  which  was  pro- 
posed to  them  :  "  We  have  piped  unto  you,  and  ye  have  not 
danced ;  we  have  mourned  unto  you,  (that  is,  sang  mournful 
funeral  songs,)  and  ye  have  not  lamented,"  according  to  the 
custom  of  such  occasions.  (Matt.  xi.  16,  17.) 


50  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

Besides  rending  the  garment,  sorrow  was  expressed,  nt  times 
by  beating  the  breast;  tearing  the  hair;  uncovering  the  h"ad  ; 
walking  barefoot;  covering  the  liffter  more  properly  tin  chirr 
scattering  ashes  or  dust  into  the  air;  putting  "n  sick-cloth, 
and  spreading  ashes  over  the  head,  or  sitting  down  in  the  midst 
of  them.  Sometimes  they  tore  their  faces  with  their  nail*, 
and  wounded  their  flesh  with  painful  cuttings;  though  this 
was  a  heathenish  practice,  expressly  forbidden  in  the  Jewish 
law.  (Lev.  xix.  28,  Deut.  xiv.  1,  2.)  It  was  common  also,  to 
take  off  the  ornaments  of  dress,  and  neglect  all  attention  to 
personal  appearance ;  they  refused  to  anoint  their  heads,  to 
wash  themselves,  to  dress  their  hair,  to  trim  their  beards,  or 
to  indulge  themselves  with  any  of  the  common  comforts  of 
life.  (2  Sam.  i.  2,  11,  xiii.  19,  xiv.  2,  xv.  30,  xix.  4,  24.) 
These  forms  were  not,  of  course,  all,  or  even  most  of  them, 
employed  on  common  occasions  of  grief,  or  confined  by  any 
means  to  funeral  seasons;  they  were  the  general  sii'ii-  of  afflic- 
tion, on  any  account,  and  were  displayed  to  a  iriv.it •  r  or  !•  -s 
extent,  according  to  the  measure  of  sorrow,  real  or  pretended, 
which  it  was  designed  to  express. 

After  death,  the  body  was  washed.  (Acts  ix.  37.)  From  a 
natural,  though  foolish,  desire  to  preserve  tin-  remains  of  be- 
loved friends,  as  long  as  possible,  from  corruption,  it  b.-emi-- 
Common  to  use  various  methods  of  embalm  in//.  We  read  of 
this  practice  in  the  history  of  the  most  ancient  times.  Jacob 
and  Joseph  were  embalmed,  with  great  care,  in  tho  land  of 
Egypt.  No  people  ever  equalled  the  ancient  Egyptians  in  this 
art.  Their  physicians,  who  were  at  the  same  time  priests,  had 
three  methods  of  embalming;  one  far  more  expensive  and 
effectual  than  the  other  two,  which  was  not  therefore  u-  <! 
except  when  persons  of  great  rank,  or  at  least  considerab'p 
wealth,  died.  In  this  case,  the  entrails  were  taken  out  of  tl.e 
body,  by  an  opening  in  the  left  side,  and  the  brain  drawn  1'n  in 
the  head,  with  a  crooked  piee*  of  iron,  through  the  nostrils: 

then  the  inside  of  the  b  >  ly  w:-  .v  i-l,    1  wit-,   .vl; r'  the  palm 

tree  and  filled  with  aroma/ i<-  -;i'> •' uicas  :  spiets  of  the  strongest 
kind  were  crowded  into  th"  skull  :  the  whole  body  was  anointed 
with  a  composition  of  myrrh  and  other  powerful  preservatives, 
and  afte.rw-irds  kept  for  a  number  of  day-  in  a  solution  of  the 
salt  of  nitre  :  lastly,  it  was  wrapped  rouiid  with  mum-ron* 
folds  of  linen,  dipped  in  oil  of  myrrh,  and  besmeared  with 
gum.  This  process  occupied  forty,  or  more  days.  The  other 
methods  were  less  complete,  but  were  more  commonly  used  on 
mt  of  their  cheapness.  When  the  body  was  embalmed, 
it  wa.s  returned  to  the  relations,  who  put  it  into  a  box  of  syca- 


niBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


151 


aiore  woxl,  so  fashioned  as  to  resemble  the  human  form,  and 
sel  it  up  in  some  part  of  the  house,  leaning  against  the  wall. 
In  this  way  bodies  were  often  kept,  for  ages.  Sometimes  the 
box  or  coffin  was  placed  in  a  tomb,  or  family  vault.  Bodies 
embalmed  in  the  first  way  have  been  preserved  for  some 
thousands  of  years;  some  of  them  are  still  found  in  Egypt, 
preserved,  without  doubt,  from  most  an- 
cient times,  and  are  now  called  mummies. 
We  have  no  account  of  any  sort  of  em- 
balm  ing  used  by  the  more  ancient  Jews. 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  they  were 
not  without  some  practice  of  the  kind, 
as  we  find  it  common  in  later  . 
Their  method  was  far  more  simple  than 
that  of  Egypt.  It  seems  to  have  been 
generally  little  more  than  wrapping  the 
body  round  with  several  folds  of  linen, 
well  supplied  with  aromatic  substances, 
such  as  aloes  and  myrrh.  Thus,  as  we 
are  told.  Nit-odeums  showed  his  care  for  the  body  of  our  Sa- 
viour, in  company  with  Joseph  of  Ariinathea,  who  took  it  down 
from  the  cross.  He  "  brrught  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes, 
about  an  hundred  pound  weight:  then  took  they  the  body  of 
Jesus,  and  irnmul  it  in  linen  clothes  with  (he  s/mv.«,  "s  the  man- 
ner of  the  Jeii-K  !.<  to  l/nry."  (John  xix.  38,  40.)  Mary,  with 
some  other  pious  women,  prepared  still  more  spices  and  oint- 
ments, and  carried  them  early  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  to 
the  sepulchre,  to  be  used  in  showing  respect  of  a  similar  kind 
to  their  Lord.  (Luke  xxiv.  1.)  The  use  of  a  large  quantity 
of  spices,  on  such  occasions,  was  expressive  of  great  regard  for 
the  deceased,  and  was  considered  au  honour  to  his  person. 

The  Jews  used  no  box  or  coffin  for  the  dead.  The  corpse, 
wrapped  in  folds  of  linen  and  bound  about  the  face  with  a  nan- 
kin, was  placed  upon  a  bier,  and  so  carried  by  bearers  to  the 
tomb.  The  bier  was  a  kind  of  narrow  bed,  consisting,  in  com- 
mon cases,  we  may  suppose,  of  only  a  plain  and  simple  frame, 
but  sometimes  prepared  with  considerable  ornament  and  cost. 
The  bier  or  bed  in  which  king  Asa  was  laid  after  his  death, 
was  "  filled  with  sweet  odours,  and  divers  kinds  of  spices,  pre- 
pared by  the  apothecaries'  art."  (2  Chron.  xvi.  14.)  On  one 
of  these'  funeral  frames  lay  1 1  3  widow's  son,  when  our  Savioui 
met  the  mournful  procession,  without  the  city-gate.  At  hii 
almighty  word,  the  dead  man  immediately  sat  up.  (Luke  vii. 
15.)  It  was  common,  at  least  in  the  later  times  of  the  nation, 
to  bury  soon  after  death.  It  was  always  inconvenient  to  keep 


152  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

a  corpse  long,  because,  by  the  law,  every  person  who  touched 
it,  or  who  merely  came  into  the  apartment  where  it  lay,  was 
rendered  unclean  from  the  time,  a  whole  week  ;  and  so  was  cut 
off  not  only  from  sacred  privileges,  but  also  from  all  intercourse 
with  friends  and  neighbours.  To  be  deprived  of  burial,  was 
counted,  among  the  Jews,  as  among  ancient  nations  universally, 
a  great  misfortune  and  disgrace.  (Eccles.  vi.  3.)  Hence  it  was 
considered  not  only  an  act  of  humanity,  but  of  religious  duty 
also,  to  bury  the  dead ;  and  the  war  was  deemed  uncommonly 
cruel,  in  which  the  conquerors  would  not  permit  the  dead 
bodies  of  their  enemies  to  receive  this  kind  attention.  (1  Sam. 
xxxi.  8—13,  2  Sam.  xxi.  9,  14,  1  Kings  xi.  11—15,  Ps. 
Ixxix.  2,  3.)  So,  the  prophets,  in  their  representations  of  the 
iwful  calamities  of  war  threatened  by  God,  often  make  use  of 
this  dreadful  image, — the  carcasses  of  the  unburied  slain  given 
up  to  be  meat  for  the  fowls  of  heaven  and  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  forest.  (Jer.  xvi.  3 — 7,  xxxiv.  20,  Ezek.  xxxix  17 — 20, 
Rev.  xix.  17,  18.) 

The  Jewish  sepulchres  were  situated  without  tl.eir  towns 
and  cities. — Jerusalem  seems  to  have  been  the  only  city  in 
which  it  was  ever  allowed  to  bury,  and  there  the  privilege  was 
granted  only  to  the  royal  family  of  David,  and  one  or  two 
other  individuals,  as  a  mark  of  peculiar  respect.  (2  Chron. 
xxiv.  16.)  Sepulchres  were  often  private  property  ;  one  family 
or  several  families  united,  having  their  own  separate  burial 
place.  There  were,  also,  however,  common  and  public  burial 
places,  generally  some  distance  out  from  the  city  or  village,  in 
a  lonely  and  unfrequented  spot.  In  these,  as  is  not  uncommon 
in  our  own  country,  particular  families  appear  to  have  had  their 
separate  little  lots,  often  surrounded  with  a  wall  like  a  garden, 
where  their  ancestors  for  many  generations  quietly  slumbered 
together.  The  private  sepulchres  were  frequently  situated  in 
gardens,  and,  in  early  ages  especially,  beneath  the  shadow  of 
some  large  and  venerable  trea  It  was  considered  a  most  de- 
sirable privilege,  to  be  buried  in  the  sepulchre  of  one's  ances- 
tors. (Gen.  xlix.  29 — 32,  2  Sam.  xix.  37.)  Hence,  by  way 
of  disgrace  and  punishment,  wicked  kings  were  sometimes  not 
permitted  to  be  buried  in  the  tombs  of  their  fathers.  (2  Chron. 
xxi.  20,  xxviii.  27.) 

Sepulchres  were,  in  common  cases,  dug  merely  in  the  ground. 
Those  of  the  more  wealthy  and  noble  were  prepared  with 
greater  labour.  They  were  often  cut  out  from  rocks,  so  as  to 
Form  quite  a  considerable  room,  surrounded  on  every  side,  and 
roofed  above  with  the  solid  stone.  Sometimes  caverns,  formed 
by  nature,  were  fitted  up  for  the  purpose.  In  these  dark 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  153 

.•hanihcrb,  (he  dead  wore  placed  around  the  sides,  each  resting 
in  a  separate  niche  or  open  cell  formed  in  the  wall.  Not  un- 
t'reqiu'utly,  sepulchres  were  very  large  and  divided  into  several 
distinct  apartments.  They  were  generally  entered  by  descend 
ing  a  few  steps,  and  where  there  were  more  rooms  than  one 
those  which  were  farthest  back  from  the  entrance  were  often 
dug  somewhat  deeper  than  such  as  were  nearer,  so  as  to  have 
another  little  flight  of  steps  leading  down  to  their  deep  solitude. 
The  entrance  was  closed  with  stone  doors,  or  by  a  simple  large 
flat  stone  placed  against  the  mouth.  The  sepulchre  in  which 
Lazarus  was  buried,  was  a  cave,  with  a  stone  laid  upon  it :  at 
tin-  call  of  Jesus,  he  came  forth  from  his  resting-place,  folded 
in  his  grave-clothes,  and  bound  about  the  face  with  a  napkin. 
(John  xi.  38,  44.)  The  sepulchre  of  Joseph  was  hewn  out  in 
the  rock ;  and,  when  the  body  of  Christ  was  laid  within  it, 
he  rolled  a  great  stone  to  the  door  for  its  security.  (Matt, 
xxvii.  60.)  Several  of  these  ancient  sepulchres  are  still  found 
in  the  land  of  Palestine.  They  sometimes  furnish,  as  they  did 
also  in  ancient  times,  a  hiding-place  for  thieves  and  robbers.  We 
read  in  the  New  Testament,  of  miserable  persons,  possessed 
with  devils,  taking  up  their  abode  in  such  solitary  places.  Over 
sepulchres,  were  sometimes  erected  monuments  of  more  or  less 
elegance,  by  way  of  honour  to  the  buried  dead ;  as  we  may 
infer  from  that  which  is  spoken  concerning  the  Pharisees : 
"  Ye  build  the  tombs  of  the  prophets,  and  garnish  the  sepul- 
chres of  the  righteous."  (Matt,  xxiii.  29.)  They  made  a  great 
pretence  to  piety,  in  constantly  repairing  and  decorating  the 
places  where  holy  men  slept  in  death,  while  they  imitated  all 
the  wickedness  of  their  fathers  in  killing  them,  by  their  persecu- 
tion of  Him,  concerning  whom  Moses  and  all  the  prophets  spake. 
In  the  same  chapter,  they  are  compared  to  "  whited  sepulchres, 
which  indeed  appear  beautiful  outward,  but  within  are  full  of 
dead  men's  bones,  and  of  all  uncleanness."  Hence  we  learn 
that  it  was  common  to  white-wash  tombs.  This  might  perhaps 
have  been  considered,  in  some  measure,  an  ornament;  but  there 
appears  to  have  been  another  reason  for  the  practice.  By  the 
law  of  Moses,  whoever  toi  ched  the  bone  of  a  man  or  a  grave, 
was  rendered  unclean  for  seven  days.  (Numb.  xix.  16.)  As 
such  defilement  unfitted  a  man  for  the  privileges  of  the  sanctu- 
ary, it  was  highly  important  that  the  possibility  of  contracting 
i:  I'v  accident  or  through  ignorance  should  be  prevented;  espe- 
i-ially  at  those  seasons  when  the  people  came  from  every  quarter 
uf  tlu;  country  to  celebrate  the  great  sacred  festivals,  at  Jeru- 
salem. On  this  account,  it  became  customary  to  paint  the 
sepulchres  with  white,  that  they  might  be  easily  mticed,  and  8C 


if.l  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

warn  those  who  were  passing  near  thorn,  to  keep  ff.  This,  iJ 
is  said,  was  required  to  be  done  a  short  time  before  the  1 ' 
over,  each  spring,  just  after  the  long  rains  were  over;  and  a* 
there  were  no  rains  through  the  summer  to  wash  it  off,  it  lasted 
till  the  next  fall.  It  was  only  three  or  four  days  before  the 
passover,  when  our  Lord  compared  the  Pharisees  to  such  sepul- 
chres, which,  we  may  suppose,  were  then  to  be  seen  with  (MM 
fresh  covering  of  white  on  every  side  of  Jerusalem. 

A  grave  < '  sepulchre  is  sometimes  called  in  Scripture  a  pit 
Hence  the  pLAlse  to  yodmcn  to  tin  ///'/  is  several  times  used  tc 
signify  descending  into  the  tomb  by  death.  Thus  the  Psalmist 
complains:  "My  life  draweth  near  to  the  grave.  I  am  counted 
with  them  that  go  down  into  the  pit:  I  am  as  a  man  that  hath 
no  strength;  free  among  the  dead,  like  the  slain  that  lie  in  the 
grave,  whom  thou  remeinberest  no  more;  and  they  arc  cut  eff 
from  thy  hand.  Thou  hast  laid  me  in  the  loiccst  jn't, — in  dark- 
ness—  in  the  deeps."  (Ps.  Ixxxviii.  3 — 6,  10 — 12,  xxviii.  1, 
xxx.  3,  9.)  The  prophet  Ezekiel  represents  the  ruin  of  several 
nations,  threatened  by  the  Almighty,  in  the  same  style.  By 
the  sword  of  destruction,  they  were  speedily  to  be  brought 
down  to  the  nether  parts  of  the  earth,  u't'th  tin  in  tlmt  </<>  ilium 
to  the  pit — to  lie  in  their  y  raves,  set  in  the  side*  of  the  pit,  that 
is,  in  the  funeral  niches  rauged  along  the  walls  of  *.he  sepul- 
chre. (Chap,  xxxii.) 

HADES. — It  became  common,  especially  in  the  language  of 
poetry,  to  employ  the  imagery  of  a  sepulchre  in  representation 
of  the  ycneral  condition  of  the  dead.  A  vast  cavern  was  con- 
ceived, stretching  abroad  with  immense  extent,  in  the  deepest 
parts  of  the  earth.  Continual  gloom  hung  over  all  its  scenery, 
and  the  most  profound  silence  reigned  on  every  side.  No  step 
of  living  man  had  ever  descended  to  its  unknown  depth ;  nor 
had  the  eye  of  such  ever  discovered  one  of  its  secrets.  It  was 
all  wrapt  in  awful  mystery7;  it  was  the  land  of  silence;  it  was 
the  region  and  shadow  of  death.  Round  its  sides,  the  forms 
of  departed  men  rested,  every  one  in  his  separate  place;  and 
when  its  powerful  gates  unfolded,  it  was  but  to  admit  some  new 
inhabitant  to  its  dreary  mansion,  as  he  came  from  his  statu 
among  the  living  on  earth,  to  mingle  with  the  countless  multi- 
tudes below.  This  unseer  unknown  condition  of  the  dead, 
was  called,  in  the  ancient  language  of  the  Jews,  Sheol;  and  iu 
the  Greek  language,  which  was  used  in  writing  the  New  Testa- 
ment, Hades.  In  the  English  Bible,  it  is  sometimes  stylrd 
simply  the  Crave^  at  other  times,  it  is  designated  by  tin  \v<»rd 
U'll.  In  the  32d  chapter  of  Ezekiel,  lately  referred  to.  some- 
hiiig  of  this  image  of  the  general  state  of  those  who  have  left  the 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  105 

*orld  is  presented  to  our  view.  The  prophet  is  commanded  to 
cast  down  Egypt  with  her  multitude,  and  all  the  daughters  of  the 
famous  nations,  unto  the  nether  parts  of  the  earth,  with  them 
that  go  down  to  the  pit ;  that  is,  according  to  the  style  of  prophe- 
cy, to  pronounce  the  decree  of  utter  ruin  which  God  had  deter- 
mined against  these  people.  Then,  the  kingdoms  are  severally 
represented,  as  if  they  were  themselves  human  persons,  taking 
their  places  in  the  deep  region  of  silence;  while  around  each,  the 
multitude  of  her  mighty  ones,  once  terrible  in  the  land  of  the 
living,  but  now  slain  and  fallen  by  the  sword,  lie  without 
strength,  and  without  glory,  round  the  sides  of  the  pit — in  the 
vast  abyss  of  Sheol,  Hades,  or  Hell.  In  the  14th  chapter  of 
I siiah,  the  image  is  brought  forward  with  full  and  clear  repre 
sentation,  in  one  of  the  most  magnificent  pictures  which  the 
inspired  poetry  of  the  Bible  has  described.  The  powerful  and 
oppressive  monarch  of  Babylon  is  suddenly  cut  off  from  power 
and  life.  The  earth,  for  gladness,  breaks  forth  into  singing ;  the 
fir  trees  and  the  cedars  rejoice.  But  not  only  the  world  which 
lie  has  left  is  made  to  exult  in  his  fall ;  Sheol  from  beneath  is 
moved  to  meet  him  at  his  coming:  it  stirreth  up  the  dead  for 
him,  even  all  the  chief  ones  of  the  earth,  and  raiseth  up  all  tho 
kings  of  the  nations  from  their  thrones.  "Art  thou,"  they  cry, 
"also  become  weak  as  we?  art  thou  become  like  unto  us?  Thy 
pomp  is  brought  down  to  the  Grave!" 

This  Sheol,  or  Hades,  is  the  Hell  intended  in  that  expression 
of  the  Psalmist :  "  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell,  or  suffer 
thy  Holy  One  to  see  corruption."  (Ps.  xvi.  10.)  The  apostle 
Peter  teaches  us  that  David,  in  this  declaration,  spake  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  foretelling  that  his  soul  should  not  be 
left  in  hell,  or  his  flesh  see  corruption ;  that  is,  that  he  should 
not  continue  in  the  condition  of  the  dead,  like  other  mortals, 
but,  by  the  power  of  God,  would  soon  forsake  their  dark  and 
silent  world,  in  all  the  fulness  of  recovered  life.  (Acts  ii. 
25 — 32.) — This  also  is  the  Hell  of  which  John  speaks  in  that 
passage ;  "  I  looked,  and  behold  a  pale  horse :  and  his  name 
that  sat  on  him  was  Death,  and  hell  followed  with  him."  (Rev. 
vi.  8.)  So,  likewise,  in  his  awful  description  of  the  last  judg- 
ment; "The  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it;  and  death 
and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them. — And 
death  and  hell  were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire."  (Rev.  xx.  12, 13.) 
Death  and  Ildl,  or  ffadett,  are  represented  as  real  persons :  the 
last  receives  all  its  power  directly  through  the  triumphs  of  the 
former,  and  wher  the  one  is  compelled  to  release  its  captives, 
the  dominion  of  tin  other  is  also  over.  So  it  shall  be  ir  the 
end:  the  whole  mysterious  state  of  separation  between  tite 


156  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

body  and  spirit  shall  come  to  an  everlasting  conclusion;  Death 
and  Hull  shall  lie  t'-T  ever  stripped  of  their  undent  power — 
swallowed  up,  as  it  wore,  in  that  infinitely  more  tremendous 
ruin  which  is  to  follow.  That,  will  be  the  sccontt  < faith — the 
lake  that  burueth  with  fire  and  brimstone,  where  the  ungodly 
shall  be  tormented  day  and  night  for  ever  and  ever — the  true 
/A  //  where  the  lost  soul,  having,  between  death  and  judgment, 
tasted  tin-  awful  punishment  of  sin  only  in  its  single  state,  shall 
ever  after,  in  union  with  its  risen  body,  drink  the  wine  of  the 
wrath  of  God  poured  out,  without  mixture,  into  the  cup  of  his 
indignation.  Blessed  is  he  who  shall  have  part  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  just  unto  eternal  life,  on  whom  t^ia  second  death 
shall  have  no  power ! 

This  mysterious,  unknown  mansion  of  the  dead,  was  con- 
ceived to  lie  in  the  deepest  region  of  the  earth,  toward  its  low- 
est foundations — as  far  beneath  its  upward  surface  as  the  starry 
heavens  are  lifted  above.  Hence,  its  image  was  frequently 
employed  to  denote  any  amazing  depth,  as  the  heavens  wer.: 
sometimes  used  to  express,  on  the  other  hand,  the  idea  of  any 
exceeding  height.  Thus  Job;  "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find 
out  God  ?  Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  to  perfection  ? 
It  is  hiyh  as  heaven,  what  canst  thou  do?  (/»j,,'r  //inn  /////, 
what  canst  thou  know  ?  The  measure  thereof  is  lonyer  than 
the  earth,  and  broader  than  the  sea  !"  (Job  xi.  7 — 9.)  That 
is,  without  figure,  "It  is  impossible  to  find  out  God  to  perfec- 
tion; such  knowledge  transcends  the  boundaries  of  created  in- 
tellect infinitely,  in  every  way."  In  similar  style,  we  find  the 
Psalmist  making  use  of  the  same  images;  "  If  1  ascend  uj»  into 
.  Thou  art  there  !  If  I  make  my  bed  in  Ml,  behold  Thou 
art  there  !  If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 
and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me  !"  (Ps.  cxxxix.  8 — 10.)  By 
which  he  means,  that  no  height,  nor  depth,  nor  distance — no 
change  of  place,  in  any  way,  however  greatr-r-could  separate  him 
from  the  presence  of  God.  In  a  like  figurative  way  we  must 
understand  the  language  of  God,  in  that  threatening  of  old ; 
"  Though  they  dig  into  hell,  thence  shall  my  hand  take  them  ; 
chough  they  climb  up  to  heaven,  thence  will  I  bring  them 
down."  (Amos  ix.  2.)  The  apostle  employs  the  same  style; 
"  Say  not  in  thy  heart,  Who  shall  ascend  into  heaven  ? — or, 
Who  shall  descend  into  the  deep  ?"  That  is,  the  gospel  re- 
quires no  hard  or  impossible  thing — it  demands  only  what  maj 
be  accomplished  with  the  greatest  ease,  if  the  heart  be  willing. 
(Rom.  x.  6 — 9.)  The  sentence  pronounced  against  Capernaum, 
introduces  the  contrast  with  awful  meaning ;  "  Thou,  Caper- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  157 

IIJUID,  which  art  exalted  to  heaven,  shall  be  brought  down  to 
hell  !"  In  other  words ;  thou  shalt  sink  from  the  most  exulted 
condition  of  privilege  and  blessing,  to  the  lowest  state  of 
wretchedness  under  the  fearful  displeasure  of  God.  (Matt.  .\i. 
23,  Luke  x.  15.) 

Hades  signifies  an  unseen  or  hidden  place,  and  well  expresses 
the  klea  which  the  Jews  represented  under  their  ancient  word 
Sheol.  Something  of  its  signification  is  found  in  the  language 
of  perhaps  every  people.  When  it  is  wanted  to  speak  of  the 
general  condition  into  which  men  are  brought  by  death,  mere- 
ly as  it  stands  contrasted  with  this  present  state  of  life,  and 
without  any  respect  to  its  happiness  or  its  misery,  some  indefi- 
nite term  or  phrase  is  employed ;  which,  while  it  may  distin- 
guish it  from  all  that  belongs  to  the  life  we  now  live,  leaves  its 
precise  character  utterly  out  of  view,  and  expresses  only  its 
most  vague  and  universal  notion.  This  notion  is  naturally 
formed,  either  by  clothing  that  unknown  state  of  being,  which 
it  contemplates,  with  some  general  imagery  borrowed  from  the 
gloomy  circumstances  which  attend  the  body  after  death — or 
by  denying  to  it  all  the  principal  features  of  this  present  scene 
of  existence,  and  opposing  it  in  the  way  of  contrast  to  all  of  life 
and  condition  that  is  felt  or  known  this  side  the  grave.  Thus 
in  our  own  tongue,  we  employ  the  phrases,  invisible  world, 
rorld  of  spirits,  the  ot/ii-r  vnrld,  &c.  They  are  used  to  dis- 
tinguish the  state  of  the  dead  in  general,  without  reference  to 
character  or  destiny,  from  the  state  of  the  living  on  earth  ;  and 
so  have  only  a  negative  significance,  waking  in  the  mind  a  con- 
ception only  of  what  is  irontimj,  rather  than  of  what  MI>H;/S  in 
any  way,  t<>  the  thing  spoken  of.  The  Jews,  however,  as  well 
as  most  other  ancient  people,  clothed  the  idea  with  somewhat 
more  of  definiteness  and  form.  Locality  and  figure  were  as- 
signed to  the  world  of  de|>arte<l  spirits;  and,  though  all  its 
imagery  was  vague  and  shadowy  and  dark,  there  was  still 
something  of  positive  reality  in  the  scenery  of  it,  which  the 
imagination  laboured  not  altogether  in  vain  to  discern  and  rest 
upon.  At  the  same  time,  the  Jewish  idea  of  this  mysterious 
place  seems  not  to  have  been  altogether  uniform  in  its  particu- 
lars; it  is  presented  with  occasional  variety  of  representation, 
and  appears  to  have  undergone  in  the  course  of  time  some  con- 
siderable alteration.  Thus,  at  one  time,  it  borrows  its  drapery, 
as  we  have  said,  from  the  lonely  sleep  of  the  tomb;  it  is  silent, 
and  dark,  and  sad,  and  its  inmates  are  lodged  in  awful  stillness 
around  its  sides.  But  again,  we  find  it  represented  with  mure 
of  life  and  activity  aiuont:  its  inhabitants,  and  without  any  such 
conformity  to  the  arrangement  of  a  sepulchre. 


158  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

The  word  Hades  is  found  in  the  Greek  original  of  the  New 
Testament  elf  cm  times.  Once  it  is  rendered,  in  the  English 
translation,  (,'rtive,  (1  Cor.  xv.  55;)  in  the  other  ten  < 
is  called  /A//.  ( )nly  three  of  these  have  not  been  aln-ad\  me  i- 
tioned,  viz.  Matt.  xvi.  18,  Luke  xvi.  23,  and  Rev.  i.  l£.  Wlien 
the  word  "  Hell"  occurs  in  other  passages,  it  is  the  translation 
of  a  different  word,  which  always  means  the  place  >//  o"//'**  tnr- 
nit. -if,  where  fallen  angels  and  ungodly  men  suffer  the  huivr 
wrath  of  the  Almighty  without,  hope. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
MISCELLANEOUS  MATTER. 

SECTION  I. 

OF   WRITING. 

THE  art  of  writing  is  most  ancient.  The  account  of  its  origin 
is  lost  in  the  distance  of  time.  It  is  clear,  however,  from  all 
history,  that  it  had  its  commencement  at  a  very  early  period, 
in  some  region  of  the  East,  and  from  thence  was  carried  into 
every  other  part  of  the  world,  in  which  it  has  been  ever  found. 
Many  have  supposed  that  the  knowledge  of  letters  was  given  to 
men,  like  the  knowledge  of  speech,  by  direct  revelation  from 
(i»i{  himself;  and,  indeed,  when  we  consider  the  mysterious 
and  marvellous  nature  of  the  invention,  it  is  hard  to  conceive 
how  it  could  ever  have  been  contrived  by  the  unassisted  wisdom 
of  man.  The  Bible  gives  us  the  earliest  notice  on  the  subject 
that  is  anywhere  to  be  found.  Mows,  we  are  told,  received  the 
two  tables  of  the  covenant  on  Mount  Sinai,  i>-rit('-n  with  the 
finger  of  God;  and  before  that,  Moses  himself  was  not  ignorant 
of  the  use  of  letters.  (Ex.  xxiv.  4,  xvii.  14.)  There  is,  there- 
fore, much  reason  to  believe  that  the  art  of  writing  was  under- 
stood among  the  Jews  while  other  nations  were  yet  without  it, 
and  that  from  them  it  has  passed  into  all  other  countries,  aud 
been  handed  down  to  our  own  times.  Hence,  the  alphabets  of 
all  languages  that  have  e\er  been  written,  present  a  striking 
conformity  with  the  ancient  alphabet  of  that  people,  whether 
we  consider  the  numler  of  their  letters,  their  names,  their 
•jounds  their  order,  or  the  original  forms  to  which  they  may 
be  traced  backward.  Some  ivt'er  the  origin  of  writing  to  the 
time  of  Moses;  others,  to  that  of  Abraham  ;  while  a  s^.ill  dif- 
ferent opinion  throws  it  back  to  the  age  of  Adam  himself. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  159 

It  was  lung,  however,  before  the  art  came  to  be  uoed  with 
\ny  thing  like  that  convenience  and  ease  which  are  now  known. 
Hie  materials  and  instruments  with  which  it  was  performed, 
were,  in  comparison  with  our  pen,  ink  and  paper,  extremely 
rude  and  unwieldy.     One  of  the  earliest  methods  was  to  cut 
out  the  letters  on  a  tablet  of  stone.     Another,  was  to  trace  them 
<m  unbaked  tiles,  or  bricks,  which  were  afterwards  thoroughly 
burned  with  tire.     Tablets  (that  is,  small,  level  surfaces  or 
plates)  of  lead  or  brass  were  sometimes  employed.     When  the 
writing  was  wanted  to  be  most  durable,  the  last  was  chosen. 
Tablets  of  wood  were  more  convenient.     Such  was  the  icrithty 
table  which  Zacharias  used.  (Luke  i.  63.)     In  some  countries, 
it  was  common  to  cover  these  with  wax,  on  which  the  letters 
could  be  easily  written,  and,  if  necessary,  blotted  out  again. 
The  instrument  employed  for  making  the 
letters  on  these  tablets,  was  a  small,  point- 
ed piece  of  iron,  or  some  other  hard  sub- 
stance, called   by  the  Romans,  a  AV//A  .- 
hence,  a  man's  manner  of  composition  was 
figuratively  termed   his  style  of  writing ; 
and  this  use  of  the  word  still  continues,  though  the  other  is 
long  since -passed  away.     The  leaves,  and  at  other  times,  the 
bark  of  different   trees,  were  early  used  for  writing.     From 
the  thin  films  of  bark  peeled  off  from  the  Egyptian  reed  Pu- 
jn/riis,  which  grew  along  the  river  Nile,  a  material  was  formed 
in  latter  times,  answering  the  purpose  much  better.     It  bore 
the  name  of  the  reed  Papyrus,  or,  in  our  language,  Papyr. 
Long  afterward,  its  name  passed  to  a  different  material,  com- 
posed of  linen  or  cotton,  which   has  taken  the  place  of  all 
others,  in  the  common  use  of  civilized  countries,  and  is  called, 
te  this  day,  Paper.     Cloth  of  linen,  and  sometimes  of  cotton, 
was  another  ancient  material  for  writing.     The  skins  of  ani- 
•nals,  also,  were  prepared  for  the  purpose.    About  two  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  the  art  of  preparing  them  was  brought  to 
great  perfection  in  the  city  of  Pergamus,  whence  they  received 
the  name  Pcrt/miie/Hi,  which,  in  English,  has  changed  into 
Parchment,  and  remains  still  in  use.     For  writing  on  such 
substances  as  have  been  last  mentioned,  a  reed,  formed  into  a 
pen,  was  used  to  trace  the  letters  with  ink  of  some  sort,  after 
the  fashion  that  is  now  common ;  or  else  they  were  painted 
with  a  small  brush,  as  was  probably  the  general  custom  at  first 
BO-.H*  were  written  generally  upon  skins,  linen,  cotton  cloth, 
<>r  papyrus  ;   parchment,  in  later  times,  was  most  esteemed.   The 
several   pieces,  or   leaves,  were  joined  one  to  another,  so  as  to 
•nakc  a  single  long  sheet  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.    'I bin 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

was  then  rolled 
round    a   stick ; 
or,  if  it  was  very 
long,  round  two 
sticks,  beginning 
at  each  end,  and  rolling  till  they  met  in  the  middle.     When 
any   person   wanted  to  read,  he   unrolled  it  to  the  place  he 
wished,  and  when  he  was  done,  rolled  it 
up  again.     Hence,  books  of  every  size 
were  cal  led  rolls:  our  word  /•////////,  means 
just  the  same  thing  in  its  original  signi- 
fication.    (Jer.  xxxvi.  2,  Ps.  xl.  7,  Isa. 
xxxiv.    4.)     The    roll    was   commonly 
written  only  on  one  side;  that  which 
was  given  to   Ezekiel,    in   vision,   was 
written  on   both,  within    and    irit/muf 
l./'k.   ii.   10.) 
1'mm     this   ac- 
count of  the  an- 
cient   books,  it 
i-  easy  to  under- 
stand how  they 
might  lie  scaled, 

either  once  or 
a  number  of 
limes,  so  that  a 
new  seal  might 
have  to  be  oj.i  ii- 
ed,  after  unroll- 
ing and  reading 
a  part,  before 
the  reader  could 
proceed  to  the 
remainder.  (Isa.  xxix.  11,  Rev.  v.  1,  2,  vi.) 

Letters  were  generally 
in  the  form  of  rolls,  too. 
They  were,  probably,  as  is 
the  eastern  custom  at  pre- 
sent, sent  in  most  cases 
without  being  sealed  ; 
while  those  aildro-cd  to 
personsof  distinction  were 
placed  in  a  valuable  purse 
or  bag,  which  was  tied,  closed  over  with  clay  or  wax,  and  sfl 
stamped  with  the  writer's  signet. 


B1IILICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


If.l 


[Th«!  Roman  Scriiiiuin,  or  book-case,  shows  how  these  mils 
v  -re  preserved. — The  labels  at  the  top  contain  the  titles.] 

Those,  persons  among  the  Jews  who  were  skilful  in  the  use 
of  the  pen,  were,  as  we  have  already  seen,  of  considerable  im- 
portance in  society.  They  were  distinguished  from  other  men, 
by  having  an  ink-horn  fastened  to  their  girdle.  (Ezek.  ii. 
'>,  3,  11.) 


SECTION    II. 
OF   MUSIC   AND    DANCING. 

Music  had  its  origin  in  Heaven.  (Job  xxxviii.  7.)  It  was 
designed  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  God,  and  to  give  to  the  de- 
votion of  cherubim  and  seraphim  its  most  lofty  expression,  aa 
it  sounded  long  since,  and  is  sounding  still,  through  the  courts 
of  his  Temple  on  high.  So,  no  doubt,  in  the  garden  of  Eden, 
our  6rst  parents  worshipped  the  great  Creator  with  songs  of 
sacred  melody.  The  fall,  which  spoiled  every  thing,  has  caused 
tins  heavenly  art  to  be  too  often,  ever  since,  perverted  from  its 
high  and  proper  character.  Kow  often  has  the  power  of  music, 
in  every  age,  been  employed  on  earth  to  turn  away  the  soul 
from  all  that  is  holy,  and  to  promote  the  darkest  interest*  of 
hell!  Musical  instruments  were  first  invented  by  Jubal,  the 
sou  of  Lamech.  (Gen.  iv.  21.)  ,  Among  the  Jews,  music  w-is 
always  cultivated  with  much  care,  and  was  employed  not  only 
*bout  the  tabernacle  and  the  temple,  hut  also  in  the 

14* 


|V2  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

:-e.-nes  of  domestic  and  social  life.  Marriages,  birth-days,  and 
other  festival  seasons,  were  enlivened  with  its  sound ;  it  was 
heard  from  the  shepherd,  as  he  reclined  at  ease  near  the  st*'|>s 
pf  his  flock,  and  from  the  fields  of  the  farmer,  as  his  harvest 
or  his  vintage  was  gathered  with  joy;  it  rose  from  the  chamber 
of  piety,  in  gratitude  and  adoration  to  God;  it  poured  it.i  more 
melancholy  strain  on  the  wind,  from  the  funeral  march,  a>  it 
moved  with  the  dead  to  the  house  appointed  for  all. 

.MrsicAL  INSTRUMENTS  were  of  three  general  kinds;  such 
as  had  strings,  such  as  were  played  upon  by  blowing,  and  such 

as    Wrre 


.  "ymbal 


by  being  struck. 
Of  the  first  class 
were  the  Harp  and 
the  Psaltery  ;  ot 
the  second,  the 
Organ,  the  Pipe 
of  different  wrte, 
the  Horn,  and 
the  Trumpet;  of 
the  last,  the  most 
common  were'  the. 
and  the  Tabret  or  Timbrel. 

The  Harp  is  mentioned  with  the  organ, 
as    the    earliest  of    nm-ical     instruments. 
(Gen.  iv.  21.)     It  was  formed  after  <li".  .'- 
cnt    fashions,   with   a  smaller   or    greater 
number  of  strings.     Sometimes  it  had  only 
three;  sometimes,  eight,  when  it  was  callfd 
,Slif  in  in  it/i.,  as  we  find  in  the  titles  of  some 
of  the  Psalms;  at  other  times,  it  had  t<-n. 
In  the  time  of  David,  the  strings  seem  to 
have  been  swept  by  the  hand  in  playing  ; 
afterward,  a  small  bow  was  used  for  the 
purpose.     The    Psaltery  had    ten    and 
sometimes  twelve    strings,  which  were 
played  upon  with  the  fingers.     It  v/as 
formed  in  the  shape  of  a  triangle;  the 
body  was  hollow,  with  a  piece  of  leath-T 
tiirhtly  drawn  over  it,  and  on  the  out.-ide 
of  the  leather,  the  strings  were  stretch:  •  1 
across.     It  is  somef  im<-«  called  a  Vint,  in 
the  English  Bible.  (Isa.  v.   12,  Amos 
vi.  5.)    On  each  of  these  ancient  instru- 
inrnts.  ihr  royal  Psalmist  "f  Israel  loved 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  103 

K*  play,  bidding  its  sounding  numbers  rise  or.  high,  with  the 
touch  of  his  skilful  hand,  while  his  voice  poured  forth  in  uni- 
son its  hallowed  song  to  Jehovah,  his  God. — The  Organ  SIM-IMS 
to  have  consisted  of  several  pipes  made  out  of  reeds,  and  hav- 
ing different  sounds,  which  were  passed  back  and  forward 
under  the  mouth,  and  thus  blown  into  so  as  to  make  music. 
It  had.  in  its  most  perfect  form,  about  seven  of  these  pipes. 
The  Pipe  had  some  general  resemblance  to  the  flute,  and  was 
made  in  different  forms.  The  J/nni,  made  out  of  the  horns 
of  oxen  or  rams,  was  chiefly  used  in  war:  it  is  sometimes 
called  a  trumpet.  There  was,  however,  another 
formed  of  metal.  The  Cymbal  consist- 
ed of  two  flat  pieces  of  brass :  the  musi- 
cian held  one  in  each  hand,  and  struck 
them  together  occasionally,  with  a  ring- 
ing sound,  as  an  accompaniment  to 
other  instruments.  It  is  often  seen  in 
bands  of  military  music  in  our  own 

country.  The  Tabret  was  a  round  hoop  of  wood  or  brass,  over 
which  was  tightly  drawn  a  piece  of  skin,  while  a  number  of  little 
bells  were  hung  around  to  increase  its  noise.  It  was  held  in  the 
left  hand  and  beaten  with  the  right.  It  is  sometimes  called  a 
Tiinlinl.  With  such  instruments  in  their  hands,  Miriam  and 
others  of  tin-  Israolitish  women  went  forth,  dancing  and  sing- 
ing their  song  of  triumph,  after  the  awful  miracle  of  the  Red 
Sea.  The  women  in  the  east,  it  is  said,  are  accustomed  to  dance, 
in  like  manner,  to  the  sound  of  tabrets,  to  this  day. 

The  sacred  music  of  the  taoernacle  and -temple  was  conducted 
by  the  Levites.  It  consisted  of  psalms  sung  with  the  voice  and 
various  accompaniments  of  instrumental  sound.  It  will  come 
more  properly  under  consideration,  when  we  are  brought  to 
speak  of  the  Sanctuary  with  its  solemn  service.  The  Jews  had 
also  their  sacred  i/tnin*,  which  were  practised,  as  expressions 
of  joy  and  thankfulness  to  God,  in  the  celebration  of  their  re- 
ligious festivals,  and  on  other  occasions  when  his  special  good- 
ness called  for  triumphant  praise.  The  notes  of  the  timbrci 
appear  to  have  been  generally  employed  to  direct  and  regulate 
the  dance.  The  company  went  forth,  following  one  who  acti-ii 
as  their  leader,  keeping  time  with  the  simple  sounds  of  the 
mu.-ic,  in  regular  movements  of  the  feet,  and  answering  one 
•mother  in  songs  framed  '«  magnify  the  plory  of  .Jehovah, 
Israel's  God,  by  declaring  his  majesty,  goodness,  and  power, 
and  exciting  the  soul  to  love  and  joyful  confidence  in  his  name. 
This  mode  of  showing  religious  joy  was  particularly  nraciised 
b)  women  (Exodus  xv.  lH>,  Judges  xxi.  :?] — '2.'i.)  Men, 


.64  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

however,  not  unfrequently  danced  l)cf«re  the  Lord,  in  like  man- 
ner Thus  King  David  leaped  and  danced,  in  company  with 
otheis,  before  the  ark;  and  so  all  the  saints  of  (iinl  an-  called 
i.l">M,  with  the  voice  of  inspiration  itself,  to  praise  the  ]»rd, 
according  to  the  usage  of  the  times,  in  the  movements  of  the 
dance,  with  the  music  of  timbrels,  and  harps,  and  organs,  and 
cymbals  sounding  high.  (Ps.  cxlix.  3,  cl.  4,  5.)  Kven  when 
there  was  no  regular  dance,  it  was  common  to  express  joy  by 
Acts  of  leaping  and  skipping.  (Luke  vi.  23,  Acts  iii.  8.) 

Dancing  was  employed,  also,  at  times,  to  express  gladness. 
jn  occasions  of  mere  social  and  worldly  rejoicing.  As  far  hack 
is  the  days  of  Job,  rich  and  ungodly  families  had  their  music 
and  dancing,  without  any  respect  to  the  worship  of  the  Most 
High.  (Job  xxi.  11 — 15.)  On  occasions  of  national  triumph, 
dances  were  sometimes  led  forth  in  honour  of  those  whose 
bravery  had  been  successful  in  war.  (Judg.  xi.  34,  1  Sam. 
xviii.  G,  7.)  So,  at  seasons  of  mirth  and  joy  on  any  a. •count, 
they  seem  to  have  been  not  uncommon.  (Jer.  xxxi.  4,  1.'}. )  I  n 
the  time  of  our  Saviour,  we  learn  from  the  parable  of  the 
prodigal  son,  that  dancing  was  customary,  in  tin1  celebration 
of  domestic  joy.  (Luke  xv.  25.)  On  Herod's  birth-day,  the 
daughter  of  Herodias  danced  before  the  company ;  no  doubt, 
in  conformity  with  what  was  often  done  on  such  occasion-. 
We  have  no  evidence  that  both  sexes  ever  mingled  together  in 
the  Jewish  dance,  unless  it  should  be  sought  in  the  idolatrous 
confusion  which  reigned  around  the  image  of  Egypt's  deified 
calf,  at  the  foot  of  Sinai.  (Ex.  xxxii.  6,  19.)  In  religious 
dances,  they  appear  sometimes  to  have  united  in  the  same  pro- 
eession,  but  in  separate  companies.  (Ps.  Ixviii.  25.) 


SECTION   III. 
OF  GAMES  AND   THEATRES. 

IN  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  the  Greeks  and  Romans  had 
various  kinds  of  public  exhibitions  or  shows,  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  all  classes  of  people.  The  restless  desire  of  interest 
and  excitement  which  ever  attends  the  lost  condition  of  human 
nature  on  earth,  in  its  ignorance  of  the  TRUK  GOOD,  combined 
with  its  jierverted  and  trifling  taste,  has  led  to  the  invention  nf 
such  time-killing  and  sin-promoting  amusements  in  every  age, 
and,  ;uore  or  less,  among  every  people.  Barbarous  or  civilized, 
:he  disposition  is  the  same,  however  nnu-h,  in  one  case,  the 
jutward  semblance  of  refinement  may  seem  to  surpass  the 
ftidc,  uncultivated  style  which  is  found  in  another.  Cock-fights, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  105 

Bull  baitings,  Boar-hunts,  Horse-races,  shows  of  Jugglery  and 
Legerdemain,  and  Theatric-  representations,  are  all  indeed  dif- 
{>  ,-<i,t  modes  of  diversion,  fashionable  with  diffi-rent  classes  of 
society;  but  the  taste  which  makes  them  acceptable  is  the 
.same  in  all  cases,  confined  only  by  circumstances  to  such  par- 
rieular  forms  as  it  may  select,  in  any  instance,  for  it*  gratifica- 
tion. The  Jews,  we  may  suppose,  were  not  altogether  without 
sunn-  such  methods  of  finding  diversion  for  their  idle  hour*; 
but  they  seem  to  have  prevailed  to  little  extent  among  them, 
in  comparison,  with  their  customariness  in  other  nations.  The 
Greeks  took  the  lead  in  multiplying  public  shows  and  giving 
them  refinement  and  splendour.  Long  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  they  had  their  Games  and  their  Theatres,  brought  to 
their  highest  state  of-  perfection.  Their  Games  especially 
were  celebrated  through  the  whole  world  j  and,  when  their 
regular  seasons  came  round,  spectators  came  from  distant 
countries,  in  every  direction,  to  witness  their  exhibition. 
From  them  other  nations  borrowed  much,  in  the  plan  of  their 
similar  entertainments.  The  Jews  became  acquainted  with 
these  exhibitions,  after  the  success  of  the  Grecian  arms  had 
carried  their  customs  into  Asia.  In  the  time  of  Antiochus 
Kpiphanes,  the  more  licentious  of  the  nation,  who  were  in- 
clined to  adopt  the  manners  of  the  heathen,  endeavoured  to  in- 
troduce their  games  into  Judea.  Herod,  something  more  than 
a  hundred  years  after,  with  the  same  disposition  to  bring 
foreign  usages  into  the  country,  builded  at  Jerusalem  a  Thea- 
tre and  an  Amphitheatre,  and  caused  shows  to  be  exhibited 
and  games  to  be  celebrated,  after  the  manner  of  the  Romans, 
and  in  honour  of  the  Emperor  Augustus.  The  generality  of 
the  Jews,  h  v.ever,  greatly  disliked  these  steps,  as  being  con- 
trary to  their  religion,  by  reason  of  the  idolatrous  character 
which  belonged  to  such  amusements  among  the  heathen. 

There  are,  in  the  New  Testament,  several  allusions  to  the 
games  which  were  so  common  in  that  age.  These  were  plain 
and  striking  to  all  who  re:.d  thorn,  while  the  continuance  of 
such  sports,  in  different  cour.tries,  rendered  their  minds  fami- 
liar with  the  things  to  which  they  referred  ;  but  cannot  now  bo 
fully  apprehended,  without  some  explanation  from  nncient 
history. 

t  \  AMKS. — There  were,  in  ancient  Greece,  four  principal  cele- 
brations of  games,  which  returned  at  regular  seasons,  and  were 
held  always  in  their  fixed  places,  time  after  time.  The  0/um- 
/u'c,  which  were  the  most  important,  and  the  l\t/th!<tn  games 
were  celebrated  every  fifth  year;  the  S>  inxi/i  and  Isthmian, 
unce  in  tlnee  years.  The  last  were  held  near  Corinth.  Al 


H>r»  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

these  games,  which  lasted  some  days,  were  witnessed  trials  of 
strength  and  skill,  in  the  exercises  of  A"/////"/,  \Vn .>•///////,  /i-r- 
in;/,  and  throwing  the  />/.«•//*,  or  Quoit  ;  :t\»>  A'</<vx  on  f«Mit, 
on  horseback,  and  with  chariots.  An  almost  innumerable 
multitude  of  spectators  from  all  Greece,  and  from  other  coun- 
tries tar  and  near,  assembled  to  witness  the  contests.  It  in 
hard  tor  MS  to  conceive  the  greatness  of  the  interest  which  wan 
excited  by  one  of  these  occasions,  or  the  extreme  anxiety  (••  oh 
tain  the  victory,  which  was  felt  by  those  who  contended  in  the 
caulks  It  was  in  fact,  considered  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished honours  on  earth,  to  win  such  a  victory,  especially  in 
the  Olympic  games ;  and,  accordingly,  it  was  coveted  by  per- 
sons of  the  greatest  rank,  nor  were  any  pains  reckoned  too 
great,  which  might  conduct  a  man  to  such  a  height  of  glory 
Many,  therefore,  were  the  candidates  for  distinction  and  fame, 
by  this  road,  though  only  a  few  happy  individuals  could  secure 
the  prize,  while  all  the  rest  must  necessarily  come  off  with  dis- 
appointment and  shame.  None  but  freemen,  and  such  as  were 
clear  from  infamous  stains  upon  their  character,  were  allowed 
to  contend.  For  any  of  these,  at  the  same  time,  to  have  en- 
tered into  such  contests  without  the  most  careful  preparation 
beforehand,  would  have  been  the  height  of  presumption  and 
folly.  For  months,  the  candidates  submitted  themselves  to 
strict  rules  of  diet  and  exercise,  and  rigidly  refrained  from 
every  indulgence_which  might,  in  any  measure,  hinder  the  full 
strength  and  activity  of  their  bodies.  At  the  appointed  time, 
th'-y  made  their  appearance  before  the  crowd  of  spectators.  A 
II, ml, I  proclaimed  their  names,  and  recited  aloud  the  rules 
thev  were  required  to  observe  in  the  games  ;  for  unless  a  man 
strove  lawfully,  he  could  not,  though  he  came  out  conqueror, 
icceive  the  crown.  The  combatants  were  entirely  naked,  that, 
they  might  not  be  hindered  in  any  degree  by  the  weight  of 
their  clothes,  or  by  their  becoming  entangled  around  their  iimhs. 
When  the  signal  was  given  to  commence  the  contest,  every  mus- 
cle was  instantly  in  motion,  while  the  eyes  of  the  surrounding 
multitude  hung,  fixed  with  the  deepest  attention,  on  the  strug- 
gling parties.  To  hi- 
spire  them  with  zeal 
and  courage,  the  prize 
was  placed  in  full 
view  before  their  eyes. 
.Judges  were  appointed 
to  overlook  every  exer- 
cise, to  see  that  the 
rules  were  strictly  observed,  to  decide  who  came  off  conqueror, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


167 


*nd  tc  reward  his  victory  with  a  crown  of  honour  On  the 
race-ground,  they  had  their  seat  raised  near  the  goal  ^r  farthest 
i  xin  inity  <>f  the  course,  where  they  might  impartially  determine 
who  reached  the  mark  first.  They  were  persons  venerable  for 
age,  and  respected  for  integrity  of  character.  The  contests  were 
not  carried  on  without  considerable  danger  of  wounds  and  bruises, 
and  even  death  itself.  The  boxers  were  not  satisfied  with  the 
mere  weight  of  their  fists,  but  had,  besides,  a  piece  of  iron  or 
lead,  rolled  up  in  a  leather  strap  that  was  fastened  round  their 
right  hands,  which  they  employed  to  give  destructive  force  to 
their  blows.  It  was  common,  therefore,  to  spill  much  blood, 
to  break  bones,  and  to  put  limbs  out  of  joint ;  and  the  mac 
would  have  been  deemed  a  pitiful  fellow,  who  should  have  con- 
sented to  resign  the  hope  of  victory  without  submitting  first  to 
p'ich  honourable  injuries.  The  conqueror  had  his  name  pro- 
claimed, by  a  public  herald,  amid  resounding  shouts  from  the 
vast  assembly  of  spectators,  and  was  immediately  presented  with 
his  hard-earned  rrmrn.  A  branch  of  palm  also  was  given  him, 
to  carry  in  his  right  hand  as  a  sign  of  triumph.  The  crown 
was  a  thing  of  no  value  in  itself,  being  composed  merely  of 
sprigs  of  palm,  pine,  laurel,  or  wild-olive,  or  stalks  of  common 
parsley ;  but, 
as  the  token 
of  victory  and 
In 'Hour,  it  \vas 
worn  with  the 
L'lvatest  pride; 
for  the  fortu- 
nate individual 
whose  brow  it 
encircled,  be- 
came an  object 
of  admiration 

to  the  whole  assembly,  and  heard  his  name  sounded  with  the 
ni'».-t  extravagant  applause,  upon  every  side  His  native  city 
or  district  of  country  exulted  in  the  honour  of  its  citixen,  and 
took  no  small  share  of  glory  to  itself,  for  having  given  birth  to 
a  personage  so  exceedingly  worthy  of  universal  esteem.  To 
testify  their  proud  satisfaction,  he  was  lifted  into  a  triumphal 
chariot,  and  conducted  home  vith  the  greatest  pomp.  Instead 
of  throwing  open  the  gates  ol  the  town  to  bring  him  in,  they 
chose  to  throw  down  a  portion  of  the  wall ;  as  much  as  to  say — 
"  A  city  which  contains  within  it  such  extraordinary  excellence 
and  courage  as  ours,  nia\  well  do  without  walls  altogether  "  If 
the  parents  of  the  hero  were  alive,  they  blessed  the  day  which 


168  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

brought  such  a  weight  of  honour  to  their  house,  and  everybody 
\v;i-  ready  tn  congratulate  their  happy  fortune  in  ha\ing  the 
treasure  of  so  prodigious  a  son.  Peculiar  privileifs.  different 
in  different  places,  were  granted  him,  to  enjoy  till  the  day  of 
his  death.  Thus  honourable  was  it,  to  obtain  only  one  victory 
in  these  games  :  the  man  who  came  off  conqueror  in  several  of 
the  contests,  or  in  all,  as  was  sometimes  the  case,  was  almost 
literally  adored. 

We  have  said  that  these  exhibitions  were  provided  to  enter- 
tain the  public  taste.  We  must  not,  however,  imagine  that 
they  had  their  origin,  like  our  puppet-shows,  in  710  -itlier  rea- 
son. In  early  times,  strength  and  swiftness  were  the  most  im- 
portant qualifications  for  a  soldier.  Gunpowder  has,  by  its 
discovery,  entirely  changed  this  state  of  things.  Exercises  of 
the  several  kinds  that  have  been  mentioned,  grew  into  fashion 
for  the  sake  of  cultivating  these  bodily  perfections ;  and  their 
great  importance  naturally  caused  them  to  be  greatly  honoured 
wherever  they  were  found.  Hence  gradually  arose  the  Gr'' 
cian  games.  Religion,  too,  had  a  name  in  their  institution ; 
for  they  were  all  celebrated  in  honour  of  some  false  god  or 
deified  hero.  Still,  in  their  actual  character,  they  derived  their 
interest  and  encouragement  from  the  mere  gratification  which 
their  spectacle  furnished,  and  the  direct  nourishment  which 
they  yielded  to  ambition  and  pride. 

From  the  representation  which  has  been  given,  it  appears 
that  the  care  and  diligence  which  were  required  to  secure  a 
victory  in  these  games,  were  of  the  highest  kind.  On  this  ac- 
count, the  apostle  more  than  once  compares  the  Christian  life 
to  such  a  contest,  and  so  most  impressively  exhorts  those  who 
are  engaged  in  its  trial,  to  give  all  diligence  to  make  their  suc- 
cess sure,  while  he  places  before  their  eyes,  for  their  encour- 
agement, the  crown  of  glory  which  the  righteous  Judge  will 
give  them,  if  they  continue  faithful  to  the  end.  "  Know  ye 
not,"  he  exclaims,  "that  they  who  run  f»  a  nice,  run  all,  but 
one  receiveth  the  prize?  So  run,  that  ye  may  obtain.  And 
every  man  that  sfri rHh  fur  in<i*t<>ri/,  is  fi  /n/»-r<i/i-  in  nil  /////»/s. 
Now,  they  do  it  to  obtain  a  corruptible  r/-»irn;  but  we,  an  in- 
•'iirritjtfiftfr.  I  therefore  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly  ;  so  fight  1, 
not  as  one  that  beateth  the  air :  but  I  keep  under  my  body, 
and  bring  it  into  subjection,  lest  that,  by  any  means,  when  £ 
have  preached  to  others,  (or  proclaimed  like  a  /</r«/<7,)  I  my- 
jclf  should  be  a  castaway,"  (or,  rejected  person  ;)  that  is 
should  fail  in  securing  the  approbation  of  the  «/»<</»/'-,  and  so, 
'  >f  course,  come  short  of  all  reward.  (1  Cor.  ix.  24 — '27.)  The 
I'orinthians,  who  had  the  Isthmian  games  celebrated  but  a  li;- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ilt  distance  from  their  city,  could  not  but  feel  the  impressive 
force  of  such  an  exhortation.  In  similar  style  he  addresses 
i In;  Hebrews:  "Wherefore,  seeing  we  are  compassed  about 
with  so  iji-int  >i  rlniiil  if  ir  it  nesses,  let  us  lay  aside  every  wiylit, 
mi'/  tin'  fin  irhich  doth  so  easily  beset  us,  and  let  us  run  with 
patience  (he  race  tfvit  u  set  before  us,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the 
Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith,  who  for  tin:  joy  that  «•</.•<  art 
tufore  him,  endured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  set 
dowu  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  For  consider  him  that  en- 
dured such  contradiction  of  sinners  against  himself,  lest  ye  be 
ut'iu-y  and  faint  in  your  /» ///»/.-•.''  (Ileb.  xii.  1 — 3.)  In  this 
passage,  all  the  saints  who  have  gone  before,  are  represented 
as  looking  down  upon  Christians,  as  they  struggle  through 
their  earthly  trials,  with  the  interest  of  friendly  spectators. 
'l  heir  presence  and  example  should  quicken  their  zeal ;  but 
above  all  should  the  pattern  of  Jesus,  who  himself  has  led  the 
way  to  the  reward  of  glory,  through  conflicts  far  surpassing  all 
that  liis  followers  can  know,  animate  and  encourage  their 
la-arts.  Timothy  is  admonished  to  be  faithful,  by  an  allusion 
drawn  from  the  same  quarter  :  "  If  a  man  strive  for  masteries, 
yet  is  he  not  crttWMOj  except  he  >trive  lunfiilly"  ('2  Tim. 
ii.  5.)  The  apostle  likens  himself  to  a  racer  straining  every 
nerve  to  win  the  prize.  He  did  not  consider  his  work  to  be 
over,  on  this  side  of  eternity,  but  continually  strove  to  get  for- 
ward, with  all  his  might:  ''Brethren,  I  count  not  myself  to 
have  apprehended  :  but  this  one  thing  I  doj  forgetting  those 
things  which  are  behind,  and  rmc/ii/ii/  forth  unto  those  th 
which  are  before,  1  i>r<.<*  t<nrn<-<l  tin  murk  for  tin  j >ri~,<'  of  the 
high  (ailing  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus."  (Phil.  iii.  \'l— 14.)  It 
was  uot  till  near  the  close  of  his  life,  when  he  considered  the 
time  of  his  departure  to  be  just  at  hand,  that  he  allowed  him- 
self to  say  :  "  I  kn\\>  f»n<//it  a  <j»<><I  jiyhf ;  1  have  fiuis/mf  my 
roiirxi -;  I  have  kept  the  faith.  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up 
for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  /*'///<'• 
Jiidi/f,  shall  give  me  at  that  day."  ('2  Tim.  iv.  6 — 8.)  This 
crown,  unlike  the  frail  chajilets  which  were  given  in  the  games, 

failctlt   not  air.iy."    (\    IV'.    V.   4,   i.  4.) 

From  the  circumstance  tliat  a  branch  of  palm  carried  in  tne 
right  hand  was  a  token  of  victory,  in  the  celebration  of  these 
contests,  we  may  understand  that  image  in  the  vision  of  the 
apostle  John  :  "  I  beheld,  and  lo,  a  great  multitude,  which  no 
man  could  number,  of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people, 
and  tongues,  stood  before  the  throne  and  before  the  Lamb, 
clothed  in  white  robes,  and  palms  in  tin  ir  /inndx."  (Rev.  vii. 
9.)  So  thoroughly,  indeed,  has  the  emblematic  meaning  thus 

16 


i«U  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

attached  to  the  palm,  established  itself  in  human  speoeb,  thai 
to  this  day,  in  our  own  as  in  many  other  languages,  the  won! 
is  used  to  signify  victory,  without  any  thought  of  its  figurative 
application ;  and  the  phrase,  to  bear  the  palm,  or,  to  carry  tht 
jiufm,  is  everywhere  common. 

THKATRES. — The  theatre  of  ancient  times  was  built  in  the 
form  of  a  half-circle,  with  seats  rising  one  above  another  lound 
the  inside  of  the  wall.  Sometimes  the  building  was  made,  as 
it  were,  double,  with  an  oval  shape  ;  then  it  was  called  an 
Anijilii.'liintri-.  They  were  left  open  at  the  top,  or  only  covered 
with  cloth  of  some  close  kind,  to  keep  off  the  sun  or  lighter 
showers  of  rain.  Various  exhibitions  were  displayed  in  the 
centre.  Plays  were  acted  here,  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
fashionable  multitude.  Among  the  Romans,  sports  of  various 
kinds  were  also  exhibited.  One  amusement  in  which  that  re- 
tiiicd  people  greatly  delighted,  was  the  deadly  sword-fight  be- 
tween gladiators.  These  were  persons  trained  to  the  use  of  the 
sword  for  the  express  purpose  of  gratifying  the  public  taste,  or 
their  own  pride,  by  such  bloody  spectacles.  Captives,  and 
slaves,  and  condemned  malefactors,  were  the  only  gladiators  at 
first ;  but,  in  time,  free-born  citizens,  induced  by  hire,  or  by  the 
vain  imagination  of  glory  to  be  acquired  in  such  an  exhibition, 
presented  themselves  in  the  disgraceful  scene  of  battle.  An- 
other show,  common  in  the  Roman  amphitheatres,  was  the 
Fiyht  with  irf/tt  faasts,  which  condemned  persons  were  often 
compelled  to  endure,  by  way  of  capital  punishment.  Amid 
the  mockery  of  unfeeling  spectators  crowded  around,  the  wretch 
on  whom  the  sentence  of  the  law  had  fallen,  was  brought  into 
the  open  space  in  the  middle.  Then  a  lion,  or  tiger,  or  bear, 
or  some  equally  terrible  animal,  was  let  loose  upon  him,  and 
excited  to  attack  him  with  the  greatest  fury.  To  such  crii-l 
exposures  in  the  theatres,  the  apostle  seems  to  allude,  when  he 
speaks  of  Christians  being  made  a  </«'-in<j  st'*-k,  or  lfi>nfri<-ni 
*/t'>w,  in  their  fight  of  affliction,  from  the  enemies  of  the  truth. 
(Heb.  x  32,  33.)  In  another  place,  we  hear  him  saying : 
"  After  the  manner  of  men,  I  have  fought  with  beasts  at 
Epnesns,"  (1  Cor.  xv.  32;)  where  he  means,  either  that  he 
had  literally  been  condemned  to  this  punishment,  in  the  Ephe- 
siaii  theatre,  or  that  he  had  been  called  to  struggle  in  that  city 
arith  angry,  violent,  and  powerful  enemies,  who  assaulted  him 
like  wild  beasts;  as  David  calls  such  do<jx  and  lions,  in  the 
book  of  Psalms.  Some  who  fought  with  beasts  were  allowed 
to  have  armour  of  some  sort,  to  defend  themselves,  and  to  givt 
them  some  chance  of  killing  the  animal ;  while  others  were  ei- 
quite  naked,  and  without  any  weapon.  These  last  wen 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  I'll 

jevotcd  to  destruction,  without  any  possibility  of  escape;  foi 
if  they  came  off  with  life  in  one  conflict,  it  was  only  to  IK- 
slaughtered  in  another.  In  the  exhibition,  those  of  the  form*  r 
class  were  brought  out  first,  in  the  early  part  of  the  day  ;  those 
from  whom  all  favour  was  cut  off,  were  reserved  'ill  afterward, 
^nd  produced  upon  the  stage  last.  To  this  circumstance  1'aul 
appears  to  refer,  in  describing  the  great  trials  nf  himself  and 
hi  i  fellow  apostles:  "I  think  that  (rod  hath  set  forth  us  the 
apostles  (ant,  as  it  were,  <ij>ji>iintn<l  unto  iti-nt/i  ;  tor  we  are  made 
a  ipectacle  to  the  world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men."  (1  Cor. 
iv.  9.)  The  theatre  was  also  a  place  in  which  it  was  common 
for  assemblies  of  the  people  to  be  held,  when  they  met  to  do- 
liberate  on  public  business  (Acts  xix.  29.) 


SECTION    IV. 

MODES    OF    DIVIDING    AND    RECKONING    TIME. 

DAYS. — The  Jews  reckoned  their  Day*  from  evening  to 
evening,  according  to  the  order  which  is  mentioned  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis,  in  the  account  of  the  work  of  creation  : 
•'The  evening  and  the  morning  were  tkr  Jirst  <1ay."  Theii 
Sabbath,  therefore,  or  seventh  day,  began  at  sunset  on  the  day 
we  call  Friday,  and  lasted  till  the  same  time  on  tho  day  follow- 
ing.  When  our  Saviour  was  in  Capernaum,  it  was  t nought 
wrong  to  bring  the  sick  to  him  to  be  healed,  while  the  Sabbath 
lasted;  but  "at  evoi,  when  tli?  xmi  <I!<I  set,  they  brought  unt/i 
him  all  that  were  diseased,  and  them  that  were  possessed  with 
devils:  and  all  the  city  was  gathered  together  at  the  door." 
(Mark  i.  21 — 35.)  This  manner  of  giving  the  night  the  first 
place  in  the  reckoning  of  days,  has  been  found  among  several 
other  nations.  The  custom  in  such  cases,  was,  no  doubt, 
handed  down  from  the  practice  of  the  most  early  times,  founded 
upon  the  original  order,  in  which  evening  was  made  to  exist 
Iniforc  any  morning  had  been;  and  thus  the  account  of  the 
Bible  is  confirmed,  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  by  the  voici 
of  heathen  tradition. 

limits. — The  time  between  the  rising  and  the  setting  of 
the  sun  was  divided  into  twelve  equal  parts,  which  were  called 
hours  (John  xi.  9.)  As  tins  period  of  time,  however,  is  longer 
ul  one  season  of  the  year  titan  at  another,  it  is  plain  that  the 
hour*  also  would  be  of  different  length,  at  different  tinier.  ID 
winter,  they  were,  of  course,  shorter  than  in  summer.  The) 
rcrc  numbered  from  the  rising  .if  the  sun,  and  not  from  tin 


I  ,  '2  B  I  R  I  I  C  A  L    ANTIQUITIES. 

middle  of  tin-  day,  ;is  is  cmniiKin  with  UF..  Thus  the  \\<-\ir  uf 
noon,  which  we  call  the  fin-fftli,  the  .lews  ri'ckoneil  the  xistk 
hour;  while  the  twelfth  hour  with  them  was  just  ;it  sunset. 
When  the  days  and  nights  were  just  equal,  their  hour*  would 
be  exactly  equal  to  those  we  use  now,  and  would  b<  pin  to  be 
counted  precisely  from  our  six  o'clock  in  the  morning:  then 
their  Jirst  hour  would  be  our  seven  o'clock  ;  their  thir<l,  our 
.////'o'clock;  their  ninth,  OUT  three  o'clock  in  tin;  afternoon; 
mid  so  of  the  other  numbers  in  their  order.  Hut  in  the  middle 
)f  summer,  when  the  days  are  longest,  and  tin-  sun  in  that 
c  nntry  rises  about  five  and  sets  about  seven  of  our  time,  it  is 
evident  that  each  Jewish  hour  would  be  longer  than  on*-  of 
ours,  and  that  no  one  of  them  could  answer  exactly  to  any  one 
of  ours,  except  the  sixth,  or  twelve  o'clock  :  their  third  hour 
would  come  a  short  time  be/ore  our  nine,  and  their  ninth,  a 
short  time  aft.  r  our  three.  So  in  the  middle  of  winter,  when 
the  sun  rises  there  about  seven  and  sets  about  five  of  our  time, 
the  Jewish  hour  would  be  as  much  shorter;  and  then  tlieir 
third  hour  would  come  a  short  time  after  our  nine,  and  their 
ninth,  a  short  time  before  our  three.  (Matt.  xx.  1 — 12.)  The 
dreadful  darkness  that  covered  the  whole  land  when  Christ  was 
crucified,  began  precisely  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  (Matt. 
\xvii.  45.) 

/A/// rs  are  not  mentioned  till  after  the  captivity;  it  is  rea- 
sonable, therefore,  to  suppose  that  the  Jews  borrowed  this  mode 
of  dividing  time  from  the  Chaldeans,  from  whom  also  it  pas^-.i 
to  'he  (J reeks  and  Romans.  In  more  ancient  times,  the  day 
seems  to  have  been  divided  merely  into  four  general  paiN.  ac- 
cording to  the  position  of  the  sun  in  the  heavens.  Hence,  the 
notices  of  its  earlier  or  later  periods  arc  expressed  only  in  gene- 
ral terms;  such  as  the  ?//<>/•// /'//</,  the  /nut  uf  tin  '/"//.  Min-^Jay 
or  iiixiii,  the  ran/  af  tin  </<ti/,  and  the  •  •n-nlita.  It  apjx-ars, 
Imwi  \er,  that  some  advancement  toward  a  more  regular  an! 
artificial  division  was  made  before  the  captivity,  as  we  read  <  f 
a  xini-f/iii/  which  belonged  to  king  Aha/.  ('2  Kings  xx.  11.* 
1'erhaps  it  was  br< night  from  Habvlon,  (where  such  instrunn  nU 
appear  to  have  been  first  used,)  as  a  curious  ornament  and  con- 
venience tor  royal  r.se.  and  >o  \\.-e-  tar.  fully  preserved  for  many 
years.  The  word  hour  sometimes  signifies,  in  Scripture.  an> 
determinate  and  fixed  season  or  opportunity  ;  as  in  th",e  ex.- 
pessions:  "  My  hour  is  no*  yet  come;"  "This  i>  \ :  -ur  licut 
ind  the  power  of  darkness,  '  "The  /mur  is  coming,  ami  IMW 
is  ;"  and  in  others  of  lik<  kind. 

The  evening  consi>ted  of  two  parts.  The  first  commenced 
«omc  time  before  sun-set,  perhaps  as  early  as  the  ninth  hour 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  173 

1 1._'  second,  about  the  going  down  of  the  sun.  The  lamb  of 
the  passover,  and  the  lamb  of  the  daily  evening  sacrifice  were 
'•(•quired  to  be  killed  between  these  two  evening*,. 

WATCHEH. — Before  the  captivity,  the  night  was  divided  into 
three  parts,  called  u-nf, •/,!•$,  because  they  were  sevenilly  the 
periods  of  time  which  watchmen  were  required  to  spend  in  their 
nightly  service,  before  they  could  retire  from  their  posts.  They 
were  named  the  first,  the  middle,  and  the  nwrin'ii;/  watch.  In 
the  time  of  Christ,  the  Roman  and  Greek  method  of  dividing 
the  night  into/o«r  watches  was  in  use  among  the  Jews,  It 
was  also,  like  the  day,  measured  into  twelve  equal  hours,  from 
sunset  to  sunrise.  The  first  watch,  or  eveniHy,  lasted  till  about 
nine  o'clock  of  our  time;  the  second,  or  midnfyht,  from  nine 
to  twelve;  the  third,  or  cccCxroiPtNa,  froui  twelve  to  three; 
the  fourth,  or  morniinj,  from  three  till  it  was  day.  All  of  them 
are  mentioned  in  our  Saviour's  exhortation  :  "  Watch !  for  yc 
know  not  when  the  master  of  the  house  cometh;  at  even,  or  at 
in i<l n it/lit,  or  at  the  cock-crowing,  or  in  the  momiitu."  (Mark. 
xiii.  35.)  The  Jews  were  accustomed  to  distinguish  the  last- 
mentioned  period  into  the /&•*£,  the  second,  and  the  third  crow- 
ing. Thus  it  is  foretold  of  Peter:  "Before  the  cock  crow  twice, 
thou  shalt  deny  me  thrice,"  (Mark  xiv.  30 ;)  even  as  it  accord- 
ingly happened:  the  cock  crew  directly  after  his  first  denial, 
and  then  crew  a  second  time  after  the  third.  The  other  evan- 
gelists write:  "before,  the  cock  crow,"  or,  "the  cock  shall  not 
crow,  till  thou  hast  denied  me  thrice."  They  referred  to  the 
whole  time  of  cock-crowing;  meaning  that  this  should  not  be 
over  before  this  melancholy  fall  would  all  take  place,  as  it  did 
in  fact  before  it  was  half  over.  Or,  it  may  have  been  so  said, 
because. the  second  crowing  was  the  one  principally  regarded 
in  the  course  of  that  watch,  and  so  was  readily  understood  to 
be  meant,  when  one  only,  by  way  of  distinction,  was  mentioned. 

THE  WEEK. — The  wre.k  had  its  origin  with  the  commence- 
ment of  time;  when,  after  six  days  employed  in  the  work  of 
creation,  God  rested  on  the  seventh,  and  blessed  it,  and  set  it 
apart  to  be  continually  observed  as  a  day  of  holy  rest,  and  a 
gacred  memorial  of  that  great  event.  We  find,  in  the  account 
of  the  flood,  that  it  hid  continued  in  use  down  to  that  age, 
snd  so  was  a  measure  of  time  familiar  to  Noah.  (Gen.  vii.  4 — 
10,  viii.  10,  12.)  After  the  flood,  it  was  handed  down  by  the 
sons  of  Noah  to  their  descendants.  In  this  way  it  has  hap- 
pened, that  some  traces  of  the  ancient  week  are  to  be  found  in 
every  quarter  of  the  world.  Nations  the  most  distant  from 
isach  other,  and  of  every  character,  have  united  in  giving  testi- 
mony to  the  trut!'.  of  the  Bible  account;  either  by  retaining. 


174  BIBLICAL     ANTIQUITIES. 

in  their  common  reckoning  of  time,  the  regular  division  of 
seven  days,  or  at  least,  by  snowing  such  regard  to  that  Jetinite 
IP  riod,  ;is  can  in  no  way  be  accounted  for,  if  it  was  not  received 
by  tradition  from  the  earliest  ages.  Nut  only  lias  this  been 
the  cax-,  in  all  the  countries  of  the  East,  such  as  Egypt 
Arabia,  Assyria,  India,  China,  and  others;  but  among  the 
most  ancient  people  of  Europe  also,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans, 
the  Gauls,  the  Germans,  the  Britons,  and  the  several  nations 
of  the  north, — and  this,  long  before  they  had  any  knowledge 
of  Christianity,  as,  is  evident  from  the  tminfs  of  the  days  f'ouii  1 
in  use  among  them,  which  were  all  of  idolatrous  origin.  Even 
among  the  uncultivated  tribes  of  Africa,  travellers  have  met 
with  the  same  division  of  time.  It  is  not  only,  however,  by 
retaining  the  number  of  days  which  compose  a  week,  that  the 
tradition  of  the  world  so  evidently  confirms  the  account  of 
Moses;  the  testimony  is  rendered  still  more  striking,  by  the 
very  general  idea  of  some  peculiar  sacm/m-**  belonging  to  the 
seventh  day,  which  has  existed  in  every  age.  The  week,  it 
must  be  remembered,  is  not  a  natural,  period  of  time,  like  a 
'/»//,  a  month,  or  a  yar,  which  are  all  suggested  by  the  revo- 
lutions of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  so  naturally  come  into  use 
among  every  people ;  there  is  no  reason  in  the  nature  of 
tilings,  why  days  should  be  counted  by  scmi.s,  rather  than  by 
riifhlSj  tens,  or  any  other  number.  The  division,  therefore. 
wherever  found,  must  have  had  its  origin  in  arbitrary  appoint- 
ment. To  imagine,  that  all  the  nations  of  the  world  united 
in  forming  the  same  arbitrary  appointment,  by  mere  chance, 
would  be  ridiculous.  Nothing  but  the  authority  of  the  original 
appointment  made  by  God  himself,  can  be  admitted  as  a  snf- 
cient  cause  for  such  a  fact. 

The  Jews  had  not  particular  names  for  the  first  ,-ix  d.i 
the  week,  but  distinguished  them  merely  by  their  order;  thus, 
what  we  now  call  Sinnlay  was  termed  the  Jirxt  ilay  of  the 
week,  M'>n</ii//  was  the  m-.-mnl,  Tm-.^'ni/  the  third,  and  so  of 
:he  rest  The  seventh  day,  which  we  name.  Sat  unlay,  w  .is 
styled  among  them  the  Salilmth,  that  is,  the  day  of  n-xt.  And 
'•  cause  this  was  the  most  important  day  of  all  in  the  week, 
the  whole  week  came  to  IHI  called,  from  its  name,  a  Sal,l,atli  ; 
whence  the  other  days  were  called  also  the  tir.-t  day  of  the 
Sabbath,  the  second  day  of  th<-  Sabbath,  and  so  on  in  their 
order.  The  day  before  the  Sabbath,  (our  Friday,  ,1  because1  part 
of  il  was  employed  in  making  ready  for  the  Su-Tcd  r>xt  of  the 
Sabbath,  was  called,  in  later  time.-,  the  preparation.  (Ma.'k 
xv.  4'J.  >  In  addition  to  the  week  of  ilayx,  the  law  Appointed 
•»  week  of  ynii-x,  making  every  seventh  year  SaU>at>  <//,  ;«•  a 


K1C1.KAL    AXT1QU1T1KS.  1~O 

or  rest  from  cultivation,  to  the  whole  land.  After 
counting  again,  vrni  of  these  weeks  of  years,  the  fiftieth  year 
was  srt  apart  as  the  great  .A-A/'/W. 

MONTHS. — The  Jewish  months,  like  those  of  all  other  ancient 
nations,  were  lunar,  measured  from  die  new  moon  to  anothir. 
In  the  age  of  Noah,  each  month  consisted  of  thirty  days,  as 
may  be  determined  from  the  several  notices  of  time  in  the 
history  of  the  flood.  The  Jews,  however,  after  their  settlement 
in  Canaan,  seem  to  have  reckoned  each  month  from  the  *in-t 
ijij»'(i>-iin<-f;  of  each  new  moon,  without  regard  to  any  fixed 
number  of  days;  only,  if  the  new  moon  was  not  seen  at  the 
end  of  thirty  <l«y*,  they  would  not  continue  the  old  month  any 
longer  by  waiting  for  it,  but  the  next  morning  began  a  n  u 
one,  because  they  were  certain,  in  that  case,  that  clouds  or 
some  other  cause  had  hindered  the  moon's  appearance  aftei  (\i( 
actual  time  of  her  change.  While,  then  fore,  the  longest 
months  consisted  of  thirty  days  only,  others  would  Inve  no 
in  -re  than  twenty-nine,  and  sometimes  but  twen'y-eigl.t, 
acerrding  as  the  moon  was  discovered  sooner  er  later  a'  dif- 
ferent t.mes.  That  the  moon  might  be  se«  n  as  eariy  a-  pos- 
sible, it  is  said  that  persons  were  appointed  to  watch,  ab  -at 
the  time  it  was  expected,  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains;  who, 
u^  soon  as  they  saw  its  li^ht,  gave  notice,  when  it  was  prr 
claimed  to  the  JK  <  pic  by  the  sounding  of  trumpets,  and  by 
lighting  fires  on  high,  which  rapidly  carried  the  news  through 
tin-  land.  Kiich  new  mo»n  w:is,  in  SMHI«  measur  •.  a  holy  day. 
for  although  any  kind  of  business  might  be  attended  to,  it  was 
honoured  with  peculiar  offerings,  and  ceremonitsat  the  saiic'u- 
ary.  <  Num.  xxviii.  11 — 15.)  It  was  oh.-crved  also  with  p.ir- 
ticular  rcsjK'cf,  throughout  the  country,  as  a  seas>  n  of  religious 
joy.  (  1  Sam.  xx.  f>,  »>,  '24 — 1:1),  '2  Kin-s  iv.  :  .'!.  Isa.  i.  13, 
14,  Amos  viii.  ;"),  ( oil  ss.  ii.  1(5.)  Hence  aros-  the  nec«  ~ 
of  can  fully  marking  tne  i.rst  i'ay  if  i  \cry  month,  and  causing 
it  to  be  published  among  the  people.  Originally,  months  had 
no  particular  nam:>s,  but,  like  the  days  of  the  week,  were  dis- 
tinguished merely  by  their  numerical  order;  thus  they  were 
called  they//*/  month,  the  *'<-<ni<l.  the  '/tint,  and  so  on  to  the 
la,st.  In  the  time  of  Moses,  the  first  month  was  called  Anil>. 
that  is,  "the  month  of  new  fruit*,  or  young  ears  of  corn." 
The  others  continued  still  without  names.  In  the  age  of  Solo- 
mon, we  find  thre<}  other  names  in  use,  viz.  Z(f\  liul,  and 
r.thnnim.  Whence  these  names  came,  cannot  be  certainly 
known;  they  were  probably  borrowed  from  some  foreign 
calendar.  We  hear  nothing  of  them  afterward.  From  the 


176  BIBLICAL    ANTIQL'lTIKiv 

time  of  the  captivity,  all  the  months  were  called  by  the  name* 
which  the  Chaldeans  ami  Persians  were  accustomed  to  use. 

THK  YKAR. — The  common  Ymr  was  made  up  of  tweho  of 
these  mouths.  Lunar  months,  however,  it  if  well  known,  will 
not  exactly  measure  a  true  year  according  to  the  sun  Twelve 
such  months  are  nearly  eleven  days  less  time  than  such  a  your. 
Of  course,  if  the  year  of  any  people  was  always  counted  by  that 
number,  and  no  more,  it  would  begin  every  time  nearly  eleven 
Jays  sooner  than  before;  and  thus,  it  would  run  backward  till, 
in  no  great  while,  its  first  month  would  be  found  where  it 
started,  after  having  gone  round  all  the  seasons  and  so  got  a 
whole  twelve-month  out  of  its  place.  In  this  way,  most  of  the 
Mohammedans  are  accustomed  to  reckon  their  years.  But 
such  a  method  is  extremely  inconvenient.  To  regulate  their 
year  therefore,  and  keep  it  near  its  right  place,  the  Jews  added, 
when  it  seemed  to  be  necessary,  a  whole  month  to  its  common 
length.  This  must  have  been  done,  once  in  three  years  at 
most,  and  sometimes  once  in  two.  Attention  to  this  important 
matter  was  continually  secured,  by  the  manner  in  which  the 
yearly  times  of  the  sacred  /;*//><//>  were  appointed.  While 
these  were  fixed,  each  to  its  certain  mouth  in  the  year,  they 
were  also  closely  connected  with  particular  seasons;  so  that  the 
festivals  would  have  come  altogether  out  of  place,  if  their 
months  had  been  allowed  to  move  like  those  of  the  Mohamme- 
dans, to  any  extent.  The  feast  of  the  passoi-cr,  for  instance, 
was  to  be  kept  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  twenty-first  day  of  the 
first  month;  at  the  same  time,  it  was  required  that  a  sheaf  of 
barley  should  be  offered  before  the  Lord,  on  the  second  day  of 
its  celebration,  as  the  jirxt-frtn'ts  of  the  new  harvest  and  a  sign 
of  it*  commencement.  Thus  there  was  a  necessity,  that  tho 
middle  of  the  first  month  should  always  conic  as  near  as  po» 
Bible  to  the  time  when  the  grain  began  to  be  ripe.  If,  there- 
fore, at  the  end  of  twelve  ni'>ntlis,  it  appeared  that  the  middle 
of  the  next  month  would  come  ln-fun-  that  tim>,  so  that  a  sheaf 
of  ripe  b;irley  could  not  by  any  means  be  gathered  for  tho 
j--i-«..ver,  the  priests  would  be  reminded,  and,  in  a  measure, 
compelled  to  add  that  month  also  to  the  old  year,  and  to  put  ofl 
the  beginning  of  the  new  one  till  another  new  moon.  In  this 
way,  the  year,  though  measured  by  the  changes  of  the  moon, 
was  kept  in  tolerable  conformity  with  the  true  natural  year, 
which  depends  upon  the  sun.  It  miyht  begin,  some  one  spring 
almost  a  month  from  the  time  it  began  some  other  spring;  in 
euch  cases,  however,  it  would  never,  if  properly  managed,  varj 
more  thaii  two  weeks  from  the  true  year,  being  in  the  one  in- 
itauee,  only  that  much  too  fust,  and  in  the  other,  only  that 


HI  PMC  At,     AXTIQU1TIE.S.  177 

jmch  too  K/nir.  (i  iiciallv,  tin-  variation  fnun  the  correct  time 
would  !>(•  comidenbij  less. 

'I  !u-  year  was  divided  into  six  .tdi  c. masting  of  two 

mouths.  Some  acvount  of  these  lias  already  been  given,  in 
speaking  of  the  r/i)t>(,ff  of  Palestine.  There  were,  among  the 
Jews,  two  points  from  which  the  im;n*hs  of  the  year  were 
counted.  Their  XIIITK!  year  was  n ckoned  trim  the  nionfL 
\i.-(in,  or  the  ancient  Abib,  because  mi  the  fifteenth  day  of 
that  month  they  had  departed  out  of  K^-yyt;  God  himself,  or 
that  oecasion,  appointed  it  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  Israel- 
iiish  year.  (Ex.  xii.  2.)  The  sacred  feasts  were  determined 
1  v  this  reckoning,  and  the  prophets  made  use  of  it,  in  dating 
their  visions.  The  civil  year,  which  was  the  most  ancient. 
was  reckoned  from  the  month  Turi,  just  six  months  after  the 
l>e<riniiing  of  the  other.  It  was  an  old  tradition,  that  the 
nation  ol  the  world  took  place  at  that  time.  By  the  reckon- 
in..'  of  this  year,  contract*,  births,  reigns  of  kings,  and  othci 
such  matters,  were  dated.  The  month  Nisan,  with  which  the 
sacred  year  began,  commenced  with  the  new  moon  that  ap- 
peared immediately  before  harvest.  This  would  take  place 
generally  in  April  of  our  time;  but  when  the  new  moon  of 
April  would  not  occur  till  late  in  the  month,  the  preceding  one, 
which  appeared  toward  the  end  of  March,  was  made,  we  may 
•"iirlude,  the  commencing  point  of  the  sacred  year.  Thus,  it 
was  so  managed  that  the  passover  fell  always  not  far  from  the 
middle  of  April,  which  was  about  the  time  that  the  grain 
Invame  ready  for  harvest.  The  month  Tisri  began  of  course 
with  the  sixth  new  moon  after  that  of  Nisan,  which  would 
cause  it  to  fall  principally,  sometimes  more  and  sometimes  less, 
in  the  time  of  our  October.  The  names  and  order  of  the  Jew- 
ish months,  after  the  captivity,  were  as  follows,  commencing 
with  Nisan,  the  first  of  the  sacred  year.  1.  NISAN.  2.  ZIF. 
3.  SIVAN.  4.  TAMMUZ.  5.  AB.  6.  ELUL.  7.  TISRI,  or 
KTHANIM.  8.  BUL.  9.  CHISLEU.  10.  TEBETH.  11.  SHEBAT. 
\'2.  ADAR.  When  it  was  necessary  to  add  a  thirteenth  month, 
it  wa«  called  VEADAR,  which  means  the  second  Adar. 

In  counting  time,  the  Jews  were  accustomed  to  reckon  any 
/w//7  of  a  certain  period  for  the  whole.  Thus  in  Scripture  we 
sometimes  find  &  part  of  a  year  counted  as  if  it  were  a  whole 
i 'lie,  and  so  also  a  part  of  a  day.  Thus  a  child  was  said  to  be 
circumcised  when  it  was  eiyht  days  old,  though  according  to 
tne  law  this  was  U  take  place  vpon  the  eighth  day  (Lev. 
xii.  3,  Luke  ii.  21.)  If  a  child  was  born  in  the  last  hour  of 
the  day,  that  hour  was  counted  as  a  wli:>le  lay,  aud  his  circum- 
oiaiou  might  take  place  any  time  UJHUI  tae  eighth  day  froM 


17&  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

thai.  It  is  in  this  way  we  are  to  reckon  the  time,  when  w«- 
are  lold  that  our  Lord  rose  three  days  after  his  death,  and  tha) 
he  was  three  days  and  tfiree  night*  in  the  heart  of  the  earth 
(Mark  viii.  81,  Matt.  xii.  40.)  He  was  crucified  on  the  after 
noon  of  Friday,  which  was  therefore  reckoned  the  Jirst  day  of 
his  death ;  Saturday,  during  all  of  which  he  lay  in  the  sepul- 
chre, was  the  second:  when  the  first  day  of  the  week  com- 
menced, on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  he  was  still  under  the 
power  of  death,  and  did  not  break  its  bands  till  about  sunrise 
an  Sunday  morning;  so  that  it  was  the  third  day  when  ho 
rose.  Thus,  according  to  the  Jewish  way  of  counting,  he  "•«• 
ia  the  sepulchre  thrte  days. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS. 

SECTION  I. 

PATRIARCHAL    GOVERNMENT. 

THE  first  form  of  government  was  what  has  been  called  the 
Patriarchal.  This  arose  naturally  from  the  authority  of 
parents  over  their  children.  The  father  was  considered  the 
proper  ruler  of  his  own  family,  as  long  as  he  lived.  His  au- 
thority rested  upon  his  children,  even  after  they  were  grown 
up  and  had  formed  new  families  of  their  own.  His  descend- 
ants around  him  were  taught  to  look  up  to  him  as  their  su- 
preme head,  both  religious  and  civil.  When  the  father  died, 
each  son  became  the  proj»er  independent  ruler  of  that  branch 
of  the  general  family  which  was  descended  from  himself. 
Hut  it  was  not  natural  for  kindred  families  to  break  off  all 
social  connection;  especially  in  early  times,  when  the  feeling 
of  relationship  was  greatly  cherished,  and  carried  its  powerful 
sympathy  far  out  with  the  most  distant  Sowings  of  kin  Ired 
Mood.  They  did  not  therefore  generally  choose  to  separate 
into  entirely  distinct  societies.  While  the  father  of  eaeh 
house  continued  to  be  the  head  of  all  his  own  descendants,  it 
was  agreed  to  have  all  the  families  still  united  under  the 
authority  of  another  c.oiunt»n  head.  The  first- IKWII  seem*. 
originally  to  have  been  always  the  person  who  was  honoured 
with  this  dignity.  From  vari  >u-  eaiisea,  however,  the  unioi- 
»<  families  in  this  way  would  nit  Imij;  continue  to  hold  all  to- 


BIBLICAL     ANTIQUITIES  179 

Men,  on  some  account,  would  be  le'J  to  move  off  from 
the  society  of  their  relations,  and  form  new  similar  patriarchal 
establishments  in  other  places.  As  societies  became  very 
large  too,  the  bond  of  connection  could  not  but  become  less 
secure.  Jealousies  and  difficulties  between  the  several 
bmnches  would  naturally  arise.  At  length  they  would  fall 
asunder  into  separate  independent  communities. 

The  union  of  kindred  families  under  one  head  arose  at  first 
out  of  natural  affection,  rather  than  from  any  policy.  They 
considered  themselves  one  people,  because  they  were  of  one 
blood.  Any  general  government  which  was  wanted  to  bind 
them  together  was  very  small.  The  head  of  each  separate 
house  directed  all  its  concerns,  and  in  this  way  it  was  not  hard 
for  a  simple  people,  while  not  yet  very  numerous,  to  live  con- 
meted  together  as  one  general  society,  with  but  little  other 
control.  The  control  of  the  common  head,  therefore,  was  not 
exercised  with  much  actual  command  over  the  general  body 
He  was  honoured  merely  as  the  central  point,  around  which 
the  connection  clustered.  He  was  the  natural  representative 
i  f  its  kindred  whole.  Such  was  held  to  be  the  relation  which 
the  eldest  born  sustained  by  his  birth  to  the  rest  of  the  family. 
He  enjoyed  on  this  account  peculiar  respect  and  veneration 

1 1  is  counsel  was  sought.  His  advice  carried  decisive  weight. 
Hut  a  prince-like  sovereignty,  as  the  general  interests  did  not 
need  it,  he  was  not  expected  to  exercise. 

Before  long,  however,  as  separate  communities  gained 
stretgth,  and  bad  men  became  heads  of  independent  families, 
injustice,  violence  and  war  made  their  appearance.  Then 
there  arose  a  new  motive  for  union.  Related  families  were 
led  by  policy,  as  well  as  by  friendship,  to  keep  together  j  that 
by  united  strength  they  might  defend  themselves  from  plun- 
dering enemies,  or  that  they  might  be  the  better  able,  where 
such  a  disposition  was  felt,  to  do  violence  on  the  rights  of 
others.  Hence  also  the  central  head  of  their  connection 
naturally  came  to  exercise  a  more  active  authority.  A  society 
that  needed  little  general  government  in  times  of  peace,  could 
not  get  along  without  a  good  degree  of  it,  when  called  to  take 
any  thing  of  a  warlike  character,  in  the  way  either  of  violence 
or  of  mere  defence.  When  war  and  oppression  became  com- 
mon, new  ways  also  of  enlarging  societies  grew  into  fashion. 
The  weak  were  sometimes  compelled  by  force  to  submit  to  the 
strong,  and  to  add  yet  more  to  their  strength  by  serving  them 
And  sometimes,  to  avoid  this  fate,  they  of  their  own  accoro 
puf  themselves  under  the  authority  of  some  neighbour  more 
powerful  than  themselves,  and  became  his  wUling  sen-ante  \r 


ISO  BIBLICAL     ANTIQUITIKx 

jrder  to  enjoj  his  protection.  The  en-torn  of  haying  ><  rvunte 
il>o  came  iuli  use,  in  OOVUMjMMe  flf  the  vinl  net'  which  began 
(o  pievail  in  tin-  world.  Those  who  wen-  taken  captive  in  war 
wore  considered  the  property  of  their  coinju  mrs,  and  were 
nt't.  u  >nl,|  1'or  money. 

In  some  sneli  way  us  this,  things  seem  to  have  proceeded 
after  th'  flood;  ami  though  we  know  exceeding  little  of  th-. 
history  ut'  earlier  times  after  the  fall,  the  general  manner  of 
-  .ei  v  then  was  no  doubt  in  this  re-pert  af'er  the  -am*'  fashion 
M.  n  lived  s-i  long  then,  that  the  patriarchal  government  might 
have  been  continued  without  any  trouhle.  It  nii^ht  have  been 
expected  that  tin-  whole  family  of  man  would  have  lx  en  held 
together  in  one  friendly  society  while  its  generations  vue  .-» 
near  to  the  original  common  head.  Hut  .v///  hindered  the  natu- 
ral union.  Cain  went  off  very  early  from  'he  rest  of  bis  fa- 
ther's family,  under  the  curse  of  Heaven,  and  established  a  new 
OOauniU&ity.  Afterwards,  as  the  ungodly  parr  of  the  world 
increased  far  a  hove  the  pious,  they  seem  to  have  heen  split 
asunder  into  various  petty  societies.  Great  violence  grew  com- 
mon among  'h-.'in.  (Gen.  vi.  11.)  Many  men  distinguished 
themselves  l»y  during  boldness  and  terrible  valour,  in  commit- 
ting outrage  upon  others.  They  filled  the  earth,  as  far  as  it 
was  then  peopled,  with  war,  bloodshed  and  oppression.  Thus 
they  got  to  themselves  a  great  name  in  those  times,  as  many 
by  the  mere  greatness  of  their  violence  and  butchery  of  human 
life  have  done  since.  They  were  celebrated  and  feared  for  their 
wonderful  strength,  and  spoke)]  of  as  t/i<nifs,  miyhty  men, 
in' a  "/  renown.  ((Jen.  vi.  4.)  Slavery  was  one  of  the  evils 
which  sprung  out  of  these  wars  and  fightings,  as  we  may  learn 
from  the  fact  that  it  wa-  a  thing  well  known  to  Noah.  (G<:n. 

ut.  26— 27. 

The  deM-endants  of  Noah,  after  the  confusion  of  tongue?  at 
Babel,  separated  into  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  formed 
different  patriarchal  societies.  In  a  short  time,  some  of  them 
began  to  take  a  more  regular  and  settled  form  of  government. 
The  authority  of  the  common  head  glided  into  the  formal  sove- 
reignty of  a  Idntj.  Some  kingdoms  arose  in  an  orderly  way; 
others  were  established  by  viol. nee.  People  that  followed 
agriculture  to  some  considerable  extent  were  brought  into  the 
form  of  regular  kingdoms  sooner  than  those  who  made  it  their 
ehief  business  to  keep  herds  and  flocks.  Among  these  last, 
the  more  simple  patriarchal  government  was  naturally  cher- 
ished, as  being  <uited  to  their  manner  of  life,  and  sufficient  for 
*11  its  wall's.  Kven  wh  n  'heir  societies  took  the  name  of 
kingdoms,  and  th  ir  :.e:ij  'icd  kings,  they  were  often 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  lfc> 

ii.  fact  only  patriarchal  establishments  still.  They  consisted 
generally  of  several  separate  tribes  or  families,  descended  from 
a  common  ancestor,  connected  together  as  oie  people,  while 
yet  each  had  its  own  particular  head  who  ruled  it  with  a  kind 
of  sovereign  authority.  These  heads;  under  the  general  head 
or  kituj,  were  the  princes  of  the  nation.  Sometimes,  there  waa 
no  general  head  at  all,  but  the  prince  of  each  tribe  was  iu  every 
respect  an  independent  monarch,  while  yet  all  were  classed  t/j- 
get  her  as  one  people,  and  had  a  general  name  in  common. 

When  compared  with  the  kingdoms  that  have  since  been  in 
thj  world,  most  of  those  which  received  the  name  in  these 
early  times  were  very  small.  Sometimes  a  single  city,  with 
the  neighbouring  country  a  little  distance  round  it,  formed  such 
a  kingdom.  Hence,  though  the  whole  land  of  Canaan  em- 
braced not  near  as  much  country  as  some  of  our  single  states, 
we  find  it  contained  a  large  number  of  independent  govern- 
ments of  this  sort.  The  Israelites  under  Joshua,  we  are  told, 
smote  no  less  than  thirty  and  one  kings,  all  of  that  country, 
when  they  took  possession  of  the  land.  (Josh.  xii.  7 — 24.) 
Abraham  did  not  hesitate,  with  three  hundred  and  eighteen 
servants,  to  pursue  after  Chedorlaomer  and  the  kings  that  were 
with  him,  after  they  had  subdued  several  kingdoms.  (Gen.  xiv.) 
He  was  himself,  in  every  respect,  an  independent  sovereign  in 
the  country,  and  his  vast  family  of  servants  formed  a  little 
kingdom  around  him.  He  was  even  considered  a  mighty  prince 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  land.  (Gen.  xxiii.  6.)  Such, 
also,  Isaac  was  held  to  be.  The  king  of  Gerar  said  unto  him, 
"Go  from  us,  for  thou  art  much  mightier  than  we!"  (Gen. 
xxvi.  16.)  8oon,  however,  some  nations  began  to  show  a  much 
larger  appearance.  They  grew  to  be  great  and  strong.  This 
tended  gradually  to  put  an  end  to  such  very  small  kingdoms. 
They  could  not  stand  alone,  when  powerful  empires  were  rising 
in  the  earth.  Yet  there  were  always  in  the  East,  some  who 
never  could  be  brought  to  forsake  the  simple  manner  of  govern- 
ment which  prevailed  among  their  ancestors.  They  remained 
independent  tribes,  each  ruled  by  its  own  head  with  sovereign 
power,  and  forming,  in  reality,  a  little  government  by  itself, 
though  many  of  them  might  be  classed  together  as  one  general 
people,  and  might  consider  themselves  such  by  reason  of  their 
t  numon  origin.  These  were  such  as  dwelt  in  the  wilderness, 
moving  through  it  with  unsettled  habitation,  and  bidding  defi- 
ance to  the  mightiest  monarchs  of  the  earth  in  the  midst  of  it* 
safe  and  broad  retreat.  They  are  found  there  in  the  samo  in 
dependent  condition  to  this  day. 

M 


182  BIBLICAI     ANTIQUITIES 


SECTION  II. 

GENERAL   MANNER   OF   THE   ANCIENT    ISRAELITISO 
GOVERNMENT. 

AMID  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  ancient  times,  the  Jew? 
were  a  peculiar  people.  Not  only  their  religion,  but  their 
government  also,  was  established  by  divine  authority.  The 
principles  according  to  which  it  was  to  proceed,  were  solemnly 
settled  by  God  himself,  after  their  deliverance  from  the  bond- 
age of  Egypt. 

Before  that  time,  the  simple,  original  patriarchal  manner  of 
government  had  prevailed  among  them.  They  were  separated 
into  tribes,  and  these  again  into  various  branches  or  families, 
according  to  their  generations.  Each  great  family  had  its 
head,  and  each  tribe  its  prince,  chosen  out  of  the  several  heads 
of  the  families  it  contained.  These  were  called  the  cl<l>  /-.<  <// 
J*nn{.  This  general  plan  of  having  the  nation  divided  into 
tribes  and  families,  with  particular  heads  appointed  over  them, 
was  not  given  up  when  the  government  of  the  nation  was  regu- 
lated with  new  authority  afterwards.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
sanctioned  by  the  Most  High,  and  secured  by  the  system  of 
laws  which  he  published  through  his  servant  .Moses.  There 
was,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  a  wise  reason  in  the  general  de.-i_m 
of  God  for  keeping  the  whole  people  thus  separated  into  it* 
several  branches,  from  age  to  age. 

The  common  natural  object  of  government  is  to  promote 
the  happiness  and  comfort  of  mon  in  society,  by  securing  to 
them  life,  liberty,  property  and  peace,  and  assisting  their  im- 
|>ro\<  incut  in  knowledge  and  every  useful  art.  Considered  in 
this  light,  it  is  a  most  merciful  appointment  of  God,  though 
often  abused  by  the  wickedness  of  men,  like  other  good  gifts 
of  Heaven,  and  turned  into  an  instrument  of  oppression  and 
evil.  But  the  Jewish  government  wa.s  formed  peculiarly  witli 
*  view  to  answer  another  great  end.  While  it  was  so  arranged 
as  to  be  suited  well  to  the  proper  design  of  other  governments, 
its  particular  frame  was  organized  and  adjusted  by  the  Al- 
mighty with  special  reference  to  the  interest.-  of  his  <-hur<-k. 
(iod  chose  the  Jewish  people  out  of  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
to  be  his  visible  church,  to  maintain  his  wor.-hip,  and  to  pre- 
serve the  true  religion  in  the  mid.-t  of  an  idolatrous  world,  till 
the  fulness  of  time  appointed  for  the  coming  of  Christ.  This 
waft  the  great  design  of  their  separation,  and  their  civil,  as  well 
as  their  religious  state,  was  ordered  with  a  peculiar  regard  to 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  1S3 

the  securing  of  it.  The  one  was  made  to  agree  with  and  assist 
the  other  in  promoting  the  same  high  purpose.  The  kinyt'om, 
therefore,  was  intimately  connected  with  the  church.  They 
were  made  up  of  the  same  society;  to  belong  to  the  one,  waa 
to  belong  to  the  other,  and  to  be  cast  out  of  the  one,  was  to 
lose  at  the  same  time  the  privileges  of  the  other.  God  was, 
in  a  special  and  direct  way,  concerned  with  the  institution  and 
order  of  each.  The  two  were  blended  closely  together,  so  as 
to  make  one  complex  system.  The  laws  which  were  made  for 
the  government  of  the  nation  were  associated  with  those  which 
regarded  directly  the  interests  of  religion,  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  form  together  a  single  plan,  wisely  arranged  for  that  most 
excellent  end  which  has  been  mentioned.  The  Israelitish  com- 
monwealth was  organized  and  established  by  divine  care,  merely 
that  it  might  be  a  sort  of  outward  frame  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Israelitish  church.  Although,  therefore,  the  laws  and 
institutions  given  by  the  Lord  to  the  Jewish  people  arc  pro- 
perly distinguished  into  two  general  classes,  such  as  relate  to 
religion,  and  such  as  relate  to  civil  society,  a  religious  design, 
nevertheless,  may  be  discovered  in  some  measure  running 
through  all ;  and  the  reason  of  most  of  the  peculiar  features 
which  civil  society  was  made  to  bear,  is  to  be  sought  in  their 
relation  to  religion,  rather  than  in  any  mere  political  purpose. 
The  whole  system  of  government  aimed  to  secure  the  worship 
01  the  only  true  God,  and  to  preserve  his  truth  from  corruption. 
It  was  formed  therefore  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  a  strong  barrier 
against  all  idolatry,  and  in  such  a  way  as  was  likely  to  render 
it  luxthiij  as  well  as  effectual.  Its  laws,  while  they  were  adapted 
to  secure  the  temporal  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  people,  and 
to  perpetuate  the  kingdom  for  many  ages,  were  framed  in  the 
most  wise  manner  for  shutting  out  every  form  of  false  religion 
and  maintaining  the  worship  of  the  one  God  that  created  hea- 
ven and  earth. 

As  a  first  grand  measure  for  securing  the  end  which  he  had 
in  view,  God  offered  himself  to  be  the  king  of  the  nation. 
While  he  was  tb»  supreme  ruler  of  all  the  earth,  he  prop 
to  take  that  favoured  people,  to  be  a  peculiar  treasure  unto  him 
•iluvf  all  people,  -*nd  to  govern  them  himself  with  a  special  care 
•AS  their  Lawgivf  aud  Sovereign.  By  a  most  solemn  covenant 
•it  .Mount  Sinai,  '.hey  agreed  to  receive  him  as  such,  and  to  be 
irnu-nud  entirety  by  him,  not  only  as  a  church,  but  also  as  a 
Ii/Jy  nation  (V,\.  xix.  3— -8.)  In  this  character  he  afterwards 
_';i\i  !a\vs.  dr-^ided  important  questions  of  duty,  tlir.  at«  n.  >) 
|u.]ii-!iiiifut  and  caused  them  to  be  executed,  and  provided  \\.-i \  >t 
'i  which  ue  might  be  at  any  time  vonsulted  in  oases  nf  difficulty 


184  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

or  d  nibt.  lie  interposed  continually  with  his  authority  in  the 
iffairs  of  the  nation,  making  known  his  will  and  repro\ing 
what  was  wrong  in  the  measures  of  the  kingdom,  by  his  ap- 
pointed messengers;  and  oftentimes  putting  forth  his  sovereign 
power,  to  control  or  correct  those  measures,  by  means  of  his  al- 
mighty prori'ttt'ure,  in  such  a  way  as  was  not  used  with  other 
people.  The  form  of  government  under  him  was  allowed  to 
vary,  but  his  special  sovereignty  was  still  maintained.  Moses 
was  his  servant,  who  published  his  laws,  and  under  his  2ou- 
tinual  direction  led  the  nation  from  Egypt  to  the  borders  of 
Canaan.  Joshua,  under  the  same  direction,  was  made  its  com- 
mander in  chief,  to  conduct  the  people  into  the  promised  laud, 
and  to  lead  them  in  their  batiles  till  they  got  possession  of  it. 
Afterwards,  at  various  times,  extraordinary  «/«</</'*•  were  raised 
up  to  govern.  They  were  intrusted  with  great  power,  and  re- 
garded with  much  honour;  but  they  w  re  only  officers  acting 
for  God,  as  he  called  them  one  after  another,  from  time  to 
time,  into  service.  At  length,  in  the  latter  part  of  Samuel's 
life,  the  people  demanded  a  king,  such  as  other  nations  had,  to 
judge  them.  God  commanded  the  prophets  to  reprove  them, 
as  having  sinned  against  him  by  this  demand.  "  They  have 
rejected  me,"  he  declared,  "that  I  should  not  reign  over  them." 
Yet  he  suffered  them  to  have  their  desire.  (1  Sam.  viii.  o — '2'2, 
xii.  12.)  Still,  however,  he  did  not  withdraw  himself  from 
the  supreme  direction  of  the  kingdom.  (1  Sam.  xii.  16 — '22. ) 
He  pointed  out  the  king  who  should  be  chosen,  and  required 
him  to  rule  the  nation  with  continual  regard  to  divine  dircc 
tion.  Because  Saul  refused  to  obey,  the  kingdom  was  taken 
from  him  and  given  to  David.  By  his  prophets  the  Lord  con- 
tinued to  direct  and  reprove  the  proceedings  of  government, 
and  from  time  to  time  he  punished  obstinate  resistance  to  his 
will,  by  calamities  sent  in  his  righteous  providence  for  that  ex- 
press end.  Thus  king  and  people  were  made  to  remember  and 
feel  that  God  was  the  proper  sovereign  of  the  nation.  At  last, 
by  way  of  severe  punishment,  he  sent  them  into  captivity  ;  yet 
lu1  soon  brought  them  back  again,  and  established  them  undci 
his  care,  once  more,  in  their  own  land.  There,  though  hi* 
i.i.iin  ili.ite  direction  by  means  of  his  prophets  was  in  a  short 
time  withheld,  he  still  watched  over  their  affairs  with  a  pccu- 
li-ir  and  continual  pr  widence,  afflicting  sorely  for  sin,  and  y  ;( 
prot-rving  the  nation  from  ruin  with  great  deliverance  s,  (ill 
i he  great  end  of  their  separation  from  the  rest  of  the  worl.l 
was  answcn  d  fully,  with  the  introduction  of  a  new  and  bcttei 
covenant  by  the  L'.n-d  Jesus  Christ.  (Heb.  viii.  6—13.)  Then 
be  cast  them  off;  and  foi  their  dreadful  guilt,  scattered  them 


BILLICAL    ANTIQLITIE8  1S5 

•'  among  all  people,  from  the  one  end  of  the  earth  even  ante 
tlie  other,"  as  they  are  found  to  this  day.  (Dtut.  xxviii.  64.) 

God  being  properly  the  king  of  the  nation,  the  people  were 
placed  under  a  two-fold  obligation  to  honour  him,  and  to  ob- 
serve that  religion  which  he  appointed.  As  the  Lord  of  hea- 
ven and  of  earth,  their  Maker,  they  were  bound  to  obey  him 
ic  all  things,  and  to  delight  in  his  service ;  but  besides  this, 
they  were  bound  to  yield  obedience  and  homage  to  him  as 
their  national  monarch.  All  such  general  duties  as  subjects 
in  all  kingdoms  owe  to  their  king,  were,  among  the  Israelites, 
due  to  God.  Thus,  the  claims  of  religion  at  once  became  also 
claims  of  government,  and  the  good  order  of  the  state  was,  in 
its  nature,  essentially  blended  with  the  good  order  of  the  church. 
Regard  to  the  principles  and  institutions  of  the  true  religion 
could  not  be  dispensed  with,  without  unfaithfulness  and  insult 
to  the  sovereign  of  the  kingdom,  as  well  as  to  the  infinite  and 
eternal  Ruler  of  the  universe.  Such  neglect,  therefore,  called 
for  punishment  as  a  civil  offence,  na  well  as  exposed  to  the 
an^cr  of  Heaven,  in  its  character  of  a  reliyious  one.  Idolatry 
was  not  only  impiety,  as  a  departure  from  the  true  God,  bu* 
//vr/w.«  also,  as  it  set  itself  directly  in  opposition  to  the  authori- 
ty and  honour  of  the  king.  The  whole  law  of  the  kingdom, 
thrivt'ore,  ixerted  its  utmost  force  to  prevent  it,  and  to  punish 
it,  when  it  did  appear  under  any  form,  with  the  most  extreme 
severity.  In  corrupt  times,  indeed,  it  prevailed,  notwithstand- 
ing, in  the  land ;  but  it,  was  because  there  was  no  faithfulness 
among  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  maintain  the  principles  of 
the  government ;  they  were  all,  in  such  cases,  trampled  under 
foot. 

The  evil  of  idolatry  was  guarded  against  in  two  general 
ways ;  by  regulations  directly  opposing  its  errors  and  directly 
enforcmg  the  principles  of  the  true  religion,  and  also  by  regu- 
lations that  tended  indirectly  to  the  same  end,  by  hindering, 
as  far  as  possible,  all  free  and  general  intercourse  with  idola- 
trous nations.  Idolatry  reigned  through  the  world,  and  the 
Jews  discovered  themselves  ever  ready  to  be  carried  away  by 
its  temptations.  There  was  need,  therefore,  of  a  bulwark 
doubly  secured,  to  keep  that  single  people,  for  hundreds  of 
year-,  safe  from  its  total  desolation. 

How  strongly  every  thing  opposed  to  the  worship  of  the 
one  only  living  and  true  God  was  directly  and  positively  forbid- 
den, and  what  severe  punishments  were  decreed  against  all  such 
offences ;  and  how  solemnly  the  several  duties  of  obedience  to 
that  God,  and  regard  to  his  appointed  worship  were  required 
to  be  observed,  it  is  needless  to  say.  The  law  was  full  <  f  e* 

' 


fS6  BIBLICAL     ANTIQUITIES. 

rri-^s  precepts  of  this  sort.  It  set  itself  not  only  against  every 
actual  idolatrous  practice,  but  also  against  the  use  of  customs- 
in  any  way  that  were  connected  with  idolatry  among  the  hea- 
then ;  lest  by  any  means  such  customs  might  prove  an  enticr- 
meut  to  lead  men  into  the  evil  with  which  they  were  common- 
ly joined.  Thus  it  was  forbidden  to  plant  a  grove  of  any  tre.  •.« 
near  the  altar  of  the  Lord;  to  round  the  corners  of  the  head. 
or  to  mar  the  corners  of  the  beard ;  to  make  baldness  between 
the  eyi-s  for  the  dead,  &c.  These  were  customs  connected  with 
i  1  ilatry.  Thus,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  a  number  of  par- 
ticular laws  had  a  special  reference  to  superstitious  and  idola- 
trous usages  that  were  common  among  other  people  at  that 
time.  Some  that  now  seem  strange  and  difficult  to  explain, 
probably  had  much  of  their  meaning  and  design  in  a  regard  tn 
usages  of  this  sort,  which  they  were  made  to  prevent. 

It  was  altogether  necessary,  however,  in  order  to  secure  the 
end  in  view,  that,  in  addition  to  all  the  care  of  direct  and  posi- 
tive laws,  the  people  should  be  kept  as  much  as  possible  sepa- 
rate from  all  other  nations.  Evil  communications  always  tmd 
to  corrupt  good  manners;  and  the  Israelites  for  a  long  time 
showed  themselves  very  prone  to  be  spoiled  by  the  smallest  in- 
tercourse with  their  idolatrous  neighbours.  It  was,  therefore, 
a  wise  and  merciful  arrangement  in  the  general  plan  of  tlicir 
government,  to  cut  them  off,  by  every  means,  from  such  fami- 
liar intercourse,  and  to  make  them  a  people  <1w»'Uin<j  n/'i/n;  and 
"  not  reckoned  among  the  nations."  (Num.  xxiii.  9.) 

For  this  end,  they  were  settled  in  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  a 
country  not  large  enough  to  invite  or  to  allow  other  people  from 
abroad  to  come  and  dwell  among  them ;  yet  sufficient  in  all 
n  >|n-ets  for  their  support,  and  abounding  with  the  most  ex- 
cellent natural  advantages.  (Lev.  xx.  24,  20.)  They  were 
required  to  drive  out  or  destroy  all  the  idolatrous  Canaanites. 
that  they  might  not  be  a  snare  to  lead  them  into  sin.  The 
dr-t ruction  of  that  race  was  called  down  upon  them  by  their 
sins.  The  measure  of  their  iniquity  was  full,  and  the  l<r.n  1 
ites  were  commanded  to  destroy  them  without  mercy.  With- 
out a  command  from  God,  they  would  have  had  no  right  to 
attack  them  in  this  way ;  because  it  is  not  for  men  to  decide 
when  and  how  the  anger  of  God,  in  such  cases,  calls  for  1 1  it- 
execution  of  punishment.  But  when  the  command  is  given, 
it  would  be  sin  not  to  obey.  The  will  of  God  is  the  best 
reason  in  the  world  for  whatever  measure  it  demands.  He 
may  use  whatever  means  to  himself  seem  best,  to  accomplish 
his  righteous  purposes.  He  had  as  much  right  to  send  the 
Israelites  to  destroy  cities,  men,  women,  and  children,  as  to 


I'.  I  B  L I  (  A  L    ANTIQUITIES  1  <O 

tend  upon  them  the  same  destruction  by  means  of  u  famine,  i 
pestilence,  or  an  earthquake.  There  was  not,  therefore,  any 
thing  to  be  blamed,  in  the  severe  treatment  of  the  Canaanites. 
It  was  the  work  of  God,  the  Judge  of  the  whole  earth,  per- 
formed by  such  instrumentality  as  he  saw  fit  solemnly  to 
employ. 

While  care  was  taken  to  root  out  these  wicked  nations,  the 
Jews  were  forbidden,  also,  to  make  marriages  with  idolaters. 
"Thy  daughter,"  says  the  law,  "  thou  shalt  not  give  unto  his 
son,  nor  his  daughter  shalt  thou  take  unto  thy  son ;  for  they 
will  turn  away  thy  son  from  following  me,  that  he  may  serve 
other  gods."  (Deut.  vii.  3,  4.)  Again ;  no  encouragement 
was  given  to  commerce.  The  manner  in  which  the  state  was 
arranged,  tended  to  hinder  it.  The  law  which  forbade  the 
taking  of  interest  for  money  lent,  which  under  any  form  is 
called  usury  in  the  Old  Testament,  implied  that  commerce  was 
not  to  be  pursued,  and  served  to  prevent  it.  Where  there  is 
no  interest  lawful  on  money,  merchants  cannot  thrive.  Thus, 
while  the  Tyrians,  just  above  them,  were  the  most  commercial 
people  in  the  world,  and  carried  on  a  traffic  with  almost  every 
nation,  the  Israelites,  though  their  country  was  bordered  all 
along  on  one  side  by  the  sea,  for  a  long  time  had  nothing  to 
do  with  this  business  at  all,  and  never  were  brought,  for  any 
considerable  period,  to  engage  in  it,  except  to  a  small  extent. 
In  this  way  they  were  greatly  preserved  from  intercourse  with 
strangers,  and  the  introduction  of  strange  fashions  and  notions. 
They  were  a  nation  of  farmers.  There  was  made  a  necessity 
that  they  should  be  such,  in  the  way  the  land  was  divided. 

By  the  direction  of  God,  the  whole  land  was  regularly  di- 
vided, when  it  was  first  settled  by  the  Israelites,  so  as  to  secure 
to  every  family  its  proper,  particular  share.  (Num.  xxxiii.  53, 
.  54,  xxxiv.  13 — 18.)  First,  each  tribe  was  to  receive  its  dis- 
trict of  country,  distinct  from  the  rest.  Then  each  great 
family  was  to  have  allotted  to  it,  its  right  proportion  out  of  the 
district  that  fell  to  its  tribe.  Lastly  this  proportion  of  each 
euch  family  was  to  be  again  measured  off  into  as  many  parcel* 
as  it  contained  men  whc  were  to  inherit.  Thus  every  Israelite 
had  his  own  inheritance  assigned  to  him  in  the  beginning,  to 
be  handed  down  to  his  posterity  after  him.  He  lived,  too,  in 
the  midst  of  his  kindred.  Every  neighbourhood  was  made  up 
of  relations,  nearly  connected  by  blood  in  proportion  as  thrir 
ands  lay  nigh  to  each  other.  Care  was  taken,  too,  that  this 
state  of  things  should  not  alter.  Land  was  forbidden  ever  to 
be  sold  from  one  to  another,  so  as  to  rass  entirely  away  fron? 
the  family  to  which  it  had  been  given.  -The  land,"  God 


18&  BIBLICAL    ANT  I  QUIT  IKS. 

said,  "shall  not  be  sold  for  ever;  fur  the  land  is  MINE;  for  y* 
an-  strangers  and  sojourners  with  me.''  (Lev.  xxv.  23.)     Liind 
might  he  parted  with,  but  only  for  a  time.     In  the  year  of 
j.sbilee,  it  was  required  to  come  back  to  the  original  owner  or 
his  children.     When  sold,  therefore,  and  bought,  the  price  was 
always  determined  according  to  the  time  that  was  yet  to  come 
In-fore  the  next  jubilee.     It  was  just  what  the  use  of  it  for  that 
time,  longer  or  shorter,  was  considered  to  be  worth.     Nor  was 
the  person  obliged  to  wait  till  the  jubilee,  if  he  became  able 
himself,  or  if  his  near  friend  was  willing  for  him,  to  buy  it  back 
again  sooner.     Whenever  a  price,  answering  to  the  time  that 
was  still  to  come  according  to  the  rate  at  which  it  had  been 
si '1.1,  was  offered  to  the  purchaser,  he  was  obliged  at  once  to 
give  it  up.  (Lev.  xxv.  13 — 28.)     In  this  way,  no  family  was 
allowed  ever  to  be  left  without  its  proper  inheritance.     Every 
Israelite  was  born  an  heir  to  some  land,  and  forced,  in  some 
•  Measure,   to  be  a  farmer.      There  could  be  no  great    estates 
o\viied  by  single  men;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  there  room 
for  such  a  thing  as  perfect,  hopeless  beggary.     A  jm-ttv  gene- 
ral equality  was  secured.     Every  jubilee  made  every  Israelite 
an  independent  man.     There  were  times,  indeed,  when  this 
advantage  was  not  enjoyed.     We  read  of  wicked  men  joining 
hou>e  to  house,  and  laying  field  to  field,  till  there  was  no  place, 
tnat  they  might  be  placed  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  earth,   <  I -a. 
v.  8;)  but  it  was  done  in  defiance  of  law.     Those  wen-  time.- 
of  dreadful  corruption,  in  which  the  rights  of  men  were  torn 
from  them  by  violence,  and  justice  had  no  place  in  the  govern- 
ment.    We  have  seen  before,  that  only  sons  inherited,  if  then. 
were  any;  the  distinction  of  families  was  kept  up  in  the  male 
line.     But  if  there  were  no  sons,  daughters  were  to  receive  the 
inheritance;  they  were,  however,  in  such  case,  to  marry  within 
tLe  ''family  of  the  tribe  of  their  father,"  and  their  children 
were  to  be  counted  as  belonging  to  the  family  of  their  father, 
and  representatives  of  his  name,  instead  of  passing  into  the 
lines  of  the  houses  to  which  their  husbands  belonged.  (Num. 
xxvii.  1 — 11,  xxxvi.  1 — 12.)     In  other  cases,  daughters  might 
marry  into  any  tribe ;  and  when  married,  they  passed  altu 
gether  away  from  the  inheritance  of  their  fathers. 

While  this  plan  of  securing  to  every  family  its  estate,  tended 
greatly  to  promote  the  happiness  and  strength  of  the  nation, 
and  to  bring  the  whole  country  into  a  state  of  the  most  perfect 
cultivation,  it  could  not  but  have  a  powerful  influence,  too,  to 
Keep  the  Israelites  in  their  own  land,  and  to  hinder  strangers 
from  settling  much  among  them.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  it 
must  nave  hindered  foreign  commerce.  Besides,  however,  it 


B    BLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  189 

ftmued  a  str  »ng  hold  upon  every  Israelite,  to  keep  him  from 
withdrawing  to  other  nations.  He  had  property  in  his  own 
country,  which,  at  the  same  time,  he  could  not  sell,  if  he  wished 
to  leave  it.  To  go  abroad  to  live,  was  to  lose  his  estate.  A 
strong  attachment,  too,  was  naturally  formed  to  the  place  where 
his  fathers  had  always  lived,  which  would  not  endure  the 
thought  of  forsaking  it. 

While  God  himself  was  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  nation, 
ordering  its  civil  as  well  as  religious  affairs  with  a  special 
direction,  there  was  still,  at  all  times,  some  regular  form  of 
human  government  under  him,  by  which  the  business  of  the 
kingdom  was  carried  on,  and  its  laws  put  in  execution.  This, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  in  some  respects  different  at  different 
periods. 

li»  the  original  form  of  this  government,  each  tribe  had  its 
own  rulers,  and  formed,  in  many  respects,  a  distinct  and  inde- 
pendent government  within  itself.  The  manner  of  government, 
in  its  general  plan,  was  according  to  the  ancient  patriarchal 
fashion,  from  which  it  had  been  received.  Every  tribe  had  its 
prince,  and  each  of  the  greater  and  also  of  the  lesser  families 
into  which  it  was  divided,  had  its  head.  The  law  required 
jutlye*  to  be  appointed  in  every  city,  whose  business  it  was  to 
judge  the  people  not  only  of  the  city  itself,  but  also  of  the 
country,  with  its  villages,  for  some  distance  round;  so  that  in 
this  way  the  whole  land  was  furnished  with  judges.  (Deut. 
xvi.  18.)  There  was  another  class  of  persons,  clothed  with 
some  authority  and  much  respect,  who  were  scattered  in  like 
manner  throughout  the  land.  They  are  called,  in  the  English 
Uible,  njjici-r*.  Mention  is  made  of  these  in  the  account  of 
the  oppression  which  the  people  suffered  in  Egypt.  (Ex.  v. 
6,  14.)  The  same  law,  afterward,  which  required  judges  to 
be  appointed  in  every  city,  commanded  that  these  twicers  should 
be  so  appointed  also.  The  judges  and  officers  had  both  their 
particular  business  to  attend  to  j'  their  particular  departments 
of  duty,  which,  by  their  office,  tl  '.-y  were  called  to  have  in 
charge;  but  besides  this,  they  borx  a  part  also  in  the  business 
of  public  government.  Each  city  was  governed  by  a  council 
or  scntife,  that  srem>  to  have  been  made  up  of  all  the  hentfg  oj 
families,  or  el<l< •/•*,  ju<l</e s,  and  officers,  who  belonged  to  it  or  to 
the  neighbourhood  around  it.  When  measures  of  a  more 
general  sort,  such  as  concerned  several  cities  or  the  whole  tribe, 
were  to  be  considered,  a  general  nssemuly  was  called  of  all  the 
k-ii'l.-t,  jnili/i-x,  and  f/jficrrs  in  the  tribe,  together  with  its  prince. 
Tl«is  assembly,  in  each  till*-,  managed  its  government,  in  all 
case*  mat  did  not  touch  directly  the  interests  of  other  tribes  o» 


I(j0  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

of  the  nation  in  general,  as  if  it  had  been  an  independent  stafp 
Thus  we  read  of  particular  tribes  even  undertaking  and  carry 
ing  on  wars  on  their  own  account,  with  which  the  rest  u\>i>ea,T 
not  to  have  meddled.  (Josh.  xvii.  15 — 18,  Judg.  iv.  10.)  lu 
the  time  of  Saul,  the  two  tribes  and  the  half  one  which  lived 
on  the  east  side  of  Jordan,  carried  on  in  this  way,  by  themselves, 
a  very  great  war.  (1  Chron.  v.  18 — 23.)  So,  also,  the  trib*1. 
of  Simeon  had  its  own  wars,  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Hezekiah. 
(1  Chron.  iv.  39 — 43.)  Hence  we  find  the  Israelites,  as  their 
ancient  history  his  set  before  us,  continually  proceeding,  in  all 
their  political  movements,  by  tribes  otfmtvQiet. 

The  government  which  each  tribe  had  within  itself,  answered 
a  large  part  of  the  purposes  for  which  government  is  wanted 
in  any  country;  but  still  there  was  need  of  something  more  to 
bind  all  into  one  nation.  There  was,  therefore,  a  national  </>•- 
semi  ill/  or  sr/itit*-,  made  up  of  the  princes,  heads,  judges,  and 
officers  of  all  the  tribes,  which  met  at  times,  to  deliberate  upon 
questions  which  concerned  the  .general  interest,  and  to  decide 
upon  measures  that  regarded  the  order  or  we'fare  of  the  whole 
people.  (Josh,  xxiii.  2,  xxiv.  1.) 

It  is  not  altogether  clear,  what  was  the  particular  business 
of  the  officers  mentioned  above,  who  were  to  be  appointed  in 
every  city.  They  are  supposed  to  have  been  persons  chosen 
to  keep  the  gem-nliMjIi-nl  tahh-a  of  the  Israelites.  In  these  ta- 
bles were  carefully  recorded  all  the  births,  marriages,  and  deaths 
of  every  family.  Among  the  Jews,  it  was  a  matter  of  great 
importance  to  have  accurately  preserved,  from  gent-ration  to 
generation,  every  line  of  descent  along  tin1  male  side  of  houses . 
The  custom  had  its  beginning  with  the  commencement  of  so- 
ciety. The  whole  manner  of  the  Israelitish  commonwealth 
tended  to  cherish  and  confirm  its  power.  The  way  in  which 
inheritances  passed  downward  in  famines,  rendered  it  necessary 
to  keep  regular  records  of  genealogies,  such  as  never  could  be 
disputed.  It  was,  therefore,  a  public  care.  The  office  of  tlioM' 
who  were  appointed  to  take  charge  of  it  was  regarded  as  one 
of  great  importance,  and  persons  of  more  than  common  abilities 
were  sought  to  fill  it.  I>y  reason  of  this  care,  every  Israelite 
could,  without  any  difficulty,  trace  the  line  of  his  pedigree  back 
to  Abraham,  the  father  of  the  nation,  and  so  back  to  Adam, 
the  fjther  of  the  human  race.  Thus,  Matthew  and  Luke  were 
sble,  without  any  trouble,  to  give  the  genealogy  of  our  Saviour. 
I  Ma  t.  i.  1 — 10,  Luke  iii.  23 — 38.)  There  was  a  wise  coun- 
sel of  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  his  truth,  in  so  ordering  it 
Ijy  iiis  providence,  that  there  should  be  such  a  careful  distinc- 
uon  of  families  among  the  Jews,  and  such  a  careful  record 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  .01 

fcept  of  their  genealogies.  By  this  means,  a  most  satisfactory 
fulfilment  nf  several  groat  prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah 
was  made  to  appear,  when  he  came.  It  ha<l  been  foretold  that 
he  was  to  be  the  seed  of  Abraham,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and 
the  son  of  David.  (Gen.  xxii.  18,  xlix.  10,  2  Sam.  vii.  12 — 16, 
1's.  Ixxxix.  4,  cxxxii.  11,  Acts  ii.  30.)  When  Jesus  appeared, 
he  answered  to  all  these  prophecies;  and  there  was  such  ev> 
denee  of  it  in  the  public  records  of  the  families  of  the  tribe  of 
J  U'lah,  that  nobody  could  dream  of  contradicting  it.  Matthew, 
then-fore,  from  these  iveords  published  his  genealogy,  tracing 
rhe  line  of  .Joseph's  house  down  from  Abraham  and  David. 
Luke  has  given  us  the  pedigree  of  Mary's  family,  starting  with 
her  father  lleli  and  carrying  it  back  to  the  same  sources.  Soon 
after,  all  this  business  of  recording  genealogies  was  thrown  into 
confusion.  The  nation  was  scattered  and  its  families  disordered. 
They  are  still  a  separate  people,  but  no  one  .among  them  can 
declare  his  ancient  pedigree.  By  this,  they  ought  to  know 
that  the  Messiah  has  come;  for  how  could  it  now  be  certainly 
kii'Avn,  it'  he  wire  yet  to  come,  that  he  was  of  the  tribe  of  Ju- 
'l.ih  ami  i.f  the  house  of  David?  Since  God  has  long  ago  made 
it  impossible  to  prove  such  a  descent  in  any  case,  they  ought 
to  believe  that  the  Messiah  has  already  long  ago  made  his  ap- 
pearance.  But  they  blindly  expect  him  etill,  and  refuse  the 
only  Saviour,  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

We  do  not  hear  of  Jwlyex  among  the  Israelites,  till  after 
(heir  departure  out  of  Egypt.  For  a  while,  at  first,  Moses 
himself  was  the  only  judge,  and  all  causes,  great  and  small,  were 
carried  before  him.  By  the  advice  of  Jethro,  however,  which 
God  sanctioned,  he  made  a  great  number  of  higher  and  lower 
judges  for  the  nation.  "He  chose  able  men  out  of  all  Israel, 
and  made  them  heads  over  the  people,  rulers  of  thousands, 
rulers  of  hundreds,  rulers  of  fifties,  and  rulers  of  tens.  And 
they  judged  the  people  at  all  seasons:  the  hard  causes  they 
brought  unto  Moses;  buC  every  small  matter  they  judged  them- 
selves." Cases  which  judges  of  a  lower  kind  could  not  decide, 
or  in  which  their  decision  was  not  considered  just,  were  carried 
before  those  of  a  higher  order;  and  if  the  matter  was  too  hard 
for  the  highest  of  all,  the  judges  of  thousands,  it  came  before 
Moses  himself.  After  their  settlement  in  Canaan,  the  people, 
as  we  have  seen,  wero  always  to  have  judges  in  every  city. 
Weighty  oauses  were  to  be  carried  to  the  place  chosen  of  God, 
and  there  laid  before  the  priests  and  the  person  who  should  be, 
at  the  time,  clothed  with  the  authority  of  supreme  judge. 
(Deut.  xvii.  8 — 10.)  When  the  nation  came  to  be  ruled  by 
kings,  the  king  himself  was  the  supreme  judge  It  was  com 


192  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

uion  f.>r  him.  however,  to  consult  with  the  high  priest,  and  to 
•k-fk  judgment  from  his  lips. 

The  tribe  of  Levi  held  a  most  important  place  in  the  nation 
The  influence  which  it  possessed,  extended  itself  throughout 
the  whole  frame  of  government.  It  was  consecrated  especially 
to  the  service  of  God;  withdrawn  from  the  common  pursuit" 
of  life,  not  allowed  to  possess  a  particular  territory  like  th<j 
other  tribes,  and  scattered  into  every  district  of  the  land.  To 
it,  was  committed  the  care  of  religion,  and  naturally  along 
with  this,  came  the  care  of  education.  The  nature  of  their 
profession  led  them  to  cultivate  knowledge  more  than  others, 
and  afforded  them,  also,  opportunity,  such  as  no  others  had, 
for  acquiring  it.  The  learning  of  the  nation,  therefore,  was 
found  principally  in  this  trilx;.  Hence,  places  of  trust  and 
authority  came,  very  naturally,  to  be  filled  in  general  by 
Levites.  As  they  were  skilful  to  handle  the  pen,  they  were 
made,  wherever  they  could  be  found,  scribes  and  keepers  of  the 
genealogies.  As  they  were  >alled  to  be  familiar  with  the  law 
and  with  learning  in  genera.,  *hey  were,  in  like  manner,  se- 
lected, in  preference  to  others,  to  be  judges.  In  the  time  of 
David,  we  are  told,  six  thousand  of  them  were  officers  and 
judyes  througli  the  land.  (1  Chron.  xxiii.  4.)  The  law  made 
it  the  business  of  the  priests  to  explain  its  meaning,  and  to  pro- 
nounce judgment  in  all  difficult  cases.  The  priest's  lips  were 
to  keep  knowledge,  and  the  law  was  to  be  sought  at  his  mouth. 
It  was  not  required,  however,  that  the  common  judges  should 
be  taken  out  of  any  particular  tribe.  It  was  only  the  general 
superiority  of  the  tribe  of  Levi  over  the  rest,  in  point  of  learn 
ing,  which  caused  the  judges,  in  the  time  of  the  kings,  to  be 
commonly  taken  out  of  it. 

Kings  in  the  East,  at  the  present  day,  exercise  a  most  un- 
limited power  over  their  subjects,  being  restrained  by  no  law, 
and  having  respect  to  no  other  regular  authority.  We  know 
that  it  was  in  this  way,  also,  they  ruled,  in  most  of  those  coun- 
tries, in  ancient  times.  In  the  Israelitish  government,  how- 
ever, their  power  was  in  many  respects  restrained.  The  whole 
nature  of  the  government  tended  to  forbid  absolute  or  tyrannical 
authority  in  the  monarch.  God  was  the  supreme  Sovereign  of 
the  nation,  and  its  affairs  were  at  all  times  so  ordered,  that  its 
Kings  were  made  to  feel  themselves  under  his  control.  The 
system  of  religious  law  which  he  had  established,  was  a  strong 
barrier  in  the  way  of  proud  presumption.  The  priests  were  the 
.niuisters  of  the  Most  High,  appointed  to  maintain  t'he  author- 
ity of  that  law,  and  to  withstand  all  departure  from  its  princi- 
ples .  if  faithful,  their  influence  was  sufficient  to  ch«)k  even 


BIBLICAL    AN1IQUITIE8.  1(JH 

coyal  power,  wli^n  it  transgressed  its  proper  line.  The  prophets 
were  messengers  of  the  Almighty,  which  kings  were  constrained 
«o  hear,  and  compelled  to  respect — even  such  of  them  as  hated 
:heir  message  and  desired  to  cast  off  their  allegiance  to  God. 
The  peculiar  ji>-nrii/<'nre  with  which  the  nation  was  governed, 
lonspired  with  all  this  influence,  to  confound  the  ambition  of 
»riii;'<s,  and  make  them  mindful  of  their  subjection  to  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel.  The  general  manner  of  the  kingdom,  too, 
which  we  have  just  been  considering,  tended  to  prevent  arbi- 
trary power  in  kings.  There  was  too  much  of  the  old  patri- 
archal style  in  its  confederacy  of  tribes  and  families,  to  allow 
any  thing  at  all  like  despotism  in  the  throne.  The  law  of 
Moses,  because  God  foresaw  that  the  nation  would  have  kings, 
prescribed  certain  rules,  to  be  observed  when  they  should  be 
chosen.  (Deut.  xvii.  14 — 20.)  It  appears,  moreover,  that  a 
formal  contract,  or  covenant,  was  made  between  the  elders  of 
the  people  and  their  kings,  in  which  the  royal  duties  and 
powers  were  solemnly  stated.  The  covenant  was  committed 
to  writing  and  carefully  preserved.  Thus,  we  are  informed, 
when  Saul  was  made  king,  "  Samuel  told  the  people  the  man- 
ner of  the  kingdom,  and  wrote  it  in  a  book,  and  laid  it  up  be- 
fore the  Lord."  (1  Sam.  x.  25.)  So,  when  David  was  anointed 
in  Hebron,  it  is  said  that  he  mmlr  a  lm,/ur  with  the  elders  of 
Israel,  before  the  Lord.  ('2  Sam.  v.  3.)  Rehoboam  foolishly 
refused  to  agree  to  the  reasonable  terms  which  were  proposed 
to  him  by  the  people,  and  in  consequence  of  it,  ten  tribes  im- 
mediately rejected  his  claim  to  the  kingdom,  and  sought  for 
themselves  another  monarch. 

It  was  the  business  of  the  king  to  secure  obedience  to  the 
laws,  and  to  punish  such  as  broke  them.  He  had  power  to  de- 
clare war  and  to  make  peace,  and  to  administer  justice  with 
supreme  authority.  He  could  grant  pardon  to  offenders,  and 
IK-  could  sentence  them  to  immediate  death.  He  was  consi- 
dered the  military  head  of  the  army.  He  was  not,  however, 
expected  to  go  always  himself  to  war;  he  might  employ  gene- 
rals to  conduct  his  forces  in  his  stead.  It  is  hardly  necc--.n-\ 
to  say ^  that  in  some  instances  his  power  was  greatly  abused, 
and  that  not  unfrequcntly  the  boundaries  of  right  were  daring- 
ly overleaped,  and  the  privileges  of  the  people  disregarded,  in 
.-pile  of  all  the  security  with  which  they  were  defended.  The 
wickedness  of  man  has  produced  such  instances  of  evil  in  every 
government. 


l'.»l  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

SECTION  III. 
JEWISH    GOVERNMENT    AFTER    THE    CAPTIVITY. 


TIIK  (''ijifirifi/  put  a  complete  end  to  the  kiiii/</nm  <> 
made  up  Of  tlie  ten  tribes  who  revolted  from  Rehoboam.  Tlie 
kiiKjiImn  <>/  Jtttlah  was  still  preserved.  It  embraced  the  tribe 
and  family  from  which  the  5lessiah  was  to  come  ;  and  all  the 
privileges  and  promises  which  had  been  granted  to  the  seed  of 
Abraham,  the  church  of  God,  were  confined  to  it  as  the  only 
proper  stock  of  the  Jewish  nation.  During  their  captivity, 
they  were  still  allowed  to  retain  something  of  the  plan  of  gov- 
ernment which  had  boon  in  use  before.  We  read  of  their 
t'/'/irs,  and  of  the  chief  of  the  father*  »/  Ixraii.  It  appears,  also, 
that  they  had  a  prince  or  governor  of  their  own,  who  ruled 
them  under  the  supreme  authority  of  the  king  of  the  country. 
After  their  return  to  their  native  land,  while  they  continued  in 
subjection  to  the  Persians  and  afterwards  to  the  (!  reeks,  they 
had,  we  know,  a  chief  magistrate  as  well  as  other  officers  of 
their  own,  by  whom  the  government  was  managed.  When 
there  was  no  other  regularly  appointed  chief  magistrate,  it 
seetns  that  it  was  common  for  the  high  priest  to  exercise  the 
duties  of  that  office.  In  the  time  of  Antiochus  Epiphan.--. 
the  nation  recovered  its  freedom,  after  a  long  war,  carried  on 
with  great  bravery  under  the  conduct  of  Judas,  surnamed 
Maccabeus,  and  his  brothers  Jonathan  and  Simon.  These 
held,  one  after  another,  the  office  of  high  priest,  and  became, 
at  the  same  time,  jin'/ir^  ruling  the  kingdom  with  independ- 
ent and  sovereign  power.  For  something  more  than  a  hundred 
years,  the  affairs  of  the  nation  were  managed  by  persons  of  this 
illustrious  family,  who  sustained  at  once  the  dignity  of  high 
priests  and  the  authority  of  kings.  Then  it  fell  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  Romans,  about  sixty  years  before  the  birth  of 
our  Saviour. 

For  a  time,  the  Romans  made  but  little  change  in  the  man- 
nei  of  the  government.  They  exercised,  however,  the  right 
of  appointing  iis>  highest  ruler.  Instead  of  leaving  the  chief 
civil  authority  with  the  high  priest,  as  it  had  been  before,  they 
l-esfowed  it  upon  Antipater,  the  father  of  Herod.  Afterwards, 
Herod  himself  was  intrusted  with  the  government,  and  had 
conferred  upon  him  the  title  of  klmj  »/  .ln<l<n.  l}y  his  will, 
which  the  Roman  Emperor  Augustus  allowed  to  stand,  he  di- 
vided his  dominions  among  his  three  sons,  Aix-helaus,  Herod 
Autipas,  and  Herod  Philip.  Archcluus  had  Judea,  Samaria, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  19J) 

ir.d  Idumea,  and  bore  the  title  of  Ethnarch,  which  means, 
/i'///« /-,  or  chit f  »f  tin  inifii'ii.  with  a  promise  from  Augustus 
that  lie  should,  after  some  time,  receive  the  name  and  all  t In- 
dignity of  a  king,  if  he  conducted  himself  in  a  manner  worthy 
of  such  distinction.  Herod  Antipas  and  Philip  bore  the  title 
of  T'ti-arrliK.  (Jjiikeiii.  1.)  The  word  7V//V//W/  signifies,  in 
its  original  meaning,  Ifulir  <>f  the  fourth  jmrt  of  a  coun'ry 
The  office  is  said  to  have  been  borrowed  from  the  (lauls 
Throe  tribes  of  these  barbarous  people,  at  a  certain  time,  came 
:ntc  Asia  Minor,  and  by  force  took  from  the  king  of  Bitliyuia 
•i  part  of  his  country,  where  they  settled  themselves,  and  called 
the  district  from  their  own  name,  Galutia.  The  Galatians  to 
whom  Paul  wrote,  were  their  descendants.  Each  of  these 
tribes  was  divided  into  four  parts,  and  each  fourth  part  had  a 
chief  magistrate  of  its  own,  under  the  general  authority  of  the 
king.  These  chief  magistrates  were  Tetrarchs.  Afterwards, 
the  name  was  given  to  governors  who  ruled  some  district  of 
country  under  an  emperor  or  king,  though  it  was  not  the 
fourth  purt,  precisely,  of  any  kingdom.  Herod  and  Philip 
ruled  each  over  less  than  a  fourth  part  of  Judea.  A  tetrarch, 
though  dependent  on  the  Roman  Kmperor,  was  yet  allowed  to- 
govern  the  people  who  were  under  him,  altogether  according 
to  his  own  pleasure.  An  ethnareh,  however,  was  superior  in 
point  of  rank  ;  he  was  honoured  and  addressed  by  his  subjects 
as  a  king.  (Matt.  ii.  22.)  A  tetrarch  was  sometimes  dis- 
tinguished with  the  same  title..  (Matt.  xiv.  9.) 

In  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign,  Archclaus,  for  his  exceeding- 
ly bad  government,  was  deprived  of  his  authority  and  banished 
out  of  the  land.  His  territories  were  then  annexed  to  the  pro- 
vince of  Syria,  and  so  came  under  such  gove'rnment  as  was 
common  in  other  provinces  of  the  great  Roman  empire.  This 
took  place  when  Quirinus,  or  Cyreiiiu*,  was  President  of  Syria. 
A  governor  was  placed  over  Judea,  who  had  the  title  of  Procu- 
rator, and  was  dependent  upon  the  President  of  Syria.  Such 
were  Pilate,  Felix  and  Festus.  These  procurators,  or  go- 
vernors, though  they  were  officers  under  authority  in  the  great 
i-nipire,  had,  nevertheless,  very  great  authority  in  the  provinces 
which  they  ruled,  and  held  in  their  hands  the  power  of  life  and 
death.  Herod  Agrippa  reigned  over  the  country  a  while,  with 
rli,  title  of  king,  after  our  Saviour's  death;  but  only  a  short 
'ime.  (Act;  xii.  1 — i,  19—23.) 

The  iir<>curators  of  Judea  resided  generally  at  Cesarea;  but 
ju  the  gn-at  festivals,  or  when  any  tumult  was  feared,  they 
went  t->  .Jerusalem,  that  l>y  their  presence  they  might  hinder 
•i.sorder,  or  suppress  it  if  it  made  its  appearance.  They  wen- 


196  IfBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

allowed  to  keep  in  the  country,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining 
their  authority,  six  companies  <>r  Lands  of  Roman  soldiers, 
each  consisting  of  several  hundred  men.  Five  of  these  bands1 
were  stationed  at  Cesarea  and  one  at  Jerusalem,  in  a  towci 
close  by  the  temple.  (Matt,  xxvii.  "27,  28,  Acts  x.  1,  xxi.  3\ 
xxvii.  1.)  The  ('i-nfiirit>ns  who  are  mentioned  in  the  New 
Testament,  were  officers  under  the  chief  captain  of  a  hand. 
(Matt.  viii.  S,  0.)  The  name  signifies  one  who  has  the  com- 
mand of  precisely  a  hundred  men  ;  but  each  centurion  had  nof 
always  so  many.  We  must  not  conf.iim.l  the  chief  captain  of 
the  Roman  band,  with  another ofieer,  called  the  cnfitnin  nftht 
(emple.  This  last  was  a  Jewish  officer,  a  priest  of  high  stand- 
ing, who  had  command  of  the  hands  of  L -vite^  that  were  ap- 
pointed to  guard  the  temple.  (John  xviii.  3,  \'2,  Acts  iv.  1, 
v.  24-,  26.)  When  more  than  one  such  captain  is  spoken  of, 
we  are  to  understand  the  captains  of  single  bauds  under  the 
command  of  the  chief  officer.  (Luke  xxii.  4,  52.) 

As  a  Roman  province,  the  nation  was  required,  under  the 
government  of  the  procurators,  to  pay  regular  tribute.  It  was 
a  privilege  granted  to  the  Jews,  which  was  not  commonly  al- 
lowed, that  persons  from  among  themselves  were  generally  ap- 
pointed to  manage  and  collect  the  taxes  The  office  of  chief 
tax-collector,  was  one  of  some  distinction  and  of  much  profit. 
Each  had  a  particular  district  appropriated  to  his  management, 
having  paid  to  the  government  a  certain  price  for  the  right  of 
collecting  all  its  taxes.  To  secure  the  collection,  he  employed 
a  number  of  inferior  tax-gatherers,  who  took  their  several  sta- 
tions in  places  where  tribute  was  to  be  received,  and  took  in 
all  the  particular  tolls.  These  were  usually  taken  from  the 
lowest  rank  of  society,  and  were  often  very  worthless  in  their 
character.  Greedy  of  gain,  they  were  frequently  guilty  of 
fraud  and  extortion.  Accordingly,  they  were  in  all  the  pro- 
vinces heartily  hated  and  despised;  hut  especially  were  they 
detested  among  the  Jews,  who  always  felt  the  whole  matter  of 
paying  tribute  to  a  fo/eign  power  to  !>:•  an  exceeding  grievance 
and  disgrace,  and  could  not  endure  such  as  bore  any  part  ID 
collecting  it.  Hence,  the  tax-gatherers,  or  ]mttfirnns,  were  reck- 
oned in  the  same  class  with  the  vilest  sinners,  such  as  thieves, 
harlots,  &c.  It  was  considered  a  great  ><  andal,  that  our  Sa- 
viour consented  to  Sit  at  meat  with  p  -rsons  held  to  be  so  iufa 
nious.  But  he  came  to  seek  and  sive  that  which  was  lost; 
and  among  this  low  class  of  unprincipled  men,  the  grace  of  hir 
gr.np  •!  was  made  far  more  effectual  than  amon.:  the  self 
righteous  I'hari-'es.  /aceheus  was  one  of  those  chief  collector* 
that  have  been  mentioned,  who  employed  the  c.mmru)  tar- 


BIKLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  19V 

g.i  borers  under  them.  Matthew,  the  apostle,  was  a  publican 
of  the  latter  sort ;  a  common  tax-gatherer,  who  seems  to  have 
been  caring  only  for  filthy  lucre,  till  the  voice  of  Jesus  fell 
upon  his  ear,  as  he  sat  at  the  receipt  of  custom,  with  the  solemn 
:-all  FOLLOW  ME.  That  call  was  attended  with  a  divine  power; 
for  at  once,  "  he  left  all,  rose  up,  and  followed  him !" 

Jiiili/i  .s,  a.s  well  as  other  magistrates,  were  regularly  appointed 
in  sufficient  number  among  the  people,  on  their  return  from 
the  captivity.  (Ezra  vii.  25.)  Cases  that  were  more  than 
i-omiuonly  difficult,  were  brought  for  some  time  either  before 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  state,  such  as  Zerubbabel  was,  and 
Kzra,  and  Nehemiah,  or  before  the  high  priest.  At  length, 
however,  a  supreme  court  of  justice  was  established,  called  the 
Sanhedrim.  No  mention  is  made  in  history  of  this  council 
being  in  existence  before  the  time  of  the  Maccabees.  S  mie 
indeed  have  thought,  that  its  origin  is  to  be  found  as  far  back 
as  the  time  of  Moses.  On  a  certain  occasion  in  the  wilderness, 
when  Moses  was  greatly  distressed  with  the  weight  of  the  bur- 
den that  rested  upon  him,  God  commanded  him  to  choose 
seventy  men  of  the  elders  of  Israel,  whom  he  promised  to  qua- 
lity by  his  Spirit  that  they  might  assist  him  in  the  heavy 
charge.  (Num.  xi.  16 — 17,24 — 30.)  This  council,  according 
to  the  opinion  just  mentioned,  was  intended  to  be  a  lasting  su- 
preme court  in  the  kingdom,  and  was  actually  continued  age 
after  age  till  the  latest  times  of  the  nation ;  so  that  the  San- 
hedrim, of  which  we  hear  after  the  captivity,  was  in  reality 
but  the  same  institution.  But  we  find  no  notice  of  such  a 
council  being  in  existence,  during  the  whole  period  from  the 
death  of  Moses  to  the  captivity,  and  the  history  of  the  Bible 
naturally  leaves  upon  the  mind  the  idea,  that  no  tribunal  of  the 
sort  was  known.  The  council  of  seventy  appointed  in  the  wil- 
derness seems  to  have  been  formed  merely  for  the  time  which 
then  was,  that  it  might  take  a  share  with  Moses  in  the  burden 
of  government,  and  contribute  by  its  influence  to  support  his 
administration  in  the  midst  of  so  rebellious  a  people.  As  its 
members  one  after  another  died,  their  places  were  not  filled  up, 
;ind  so  it  came  to  an  end  with  that  generation.  The  Sanhe- 
Irim  after  the  captivity  was  entirely  a  new  council ;  though, 
ao  doubt,  it  was  meant  to  be  an  imitation  in  some  respects  of 
that  ancient  institution. 

The  Sanhedrim  was  composed  of  seventy  or  seventy-two 
members  selected  from  the  <•///-  //•/•/'  >v>-,  the  </•/</•*,  or  heads  of 
families,  and  tl.e  .so-/7*/.s.  The  lii^'li  priest  was  its  president. 
When  they  met,  it  is  said  that  the  members  took  their  seate 
in  Midi  a  WHV  a.«  to  form  a  semicircle,  with  the  president  in  tin- 


H;8 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


cciitn1  so  a- 
to  face  lli.Mii 
all.  On  hi* 
right  side  d:ii 

tllf  / 


f/o//,  next  in 
authority  to 
himself,  and 
on  his  left.  the 

srrnin/       /'/'•  > 
jir-  .<i'/>  /if. 

The  0,1111- 
ril  room  in 
which  they 
commonly  as- 

Selllbleil     wa- 

not  far  from 
the  temple, 

some  think  in  the  temple  ;   when  they  pretended   to  try  oui 
Saviour,  however,  they  met  in  the  palace  of  the  high  priest. 

The  authority  of  the  Sanhedrim  was  very  great,  reaching  to 
the  affairs  both  of  the  church  and  of  the  state.  In  the  time  of 
Christ,  however,  its  power  was  considerably  limited  by  the  \{  >- 
mans.  It  had  still  liberty  to  try  and  pass  sentence,  but  the 
power  of  executing  the  sentence,  if  it  called  for  capital  punish- 
ment, was  taken  from  it  and  placed  altogether  in  the  hands  of 
the  Roman  Governor.  Thus,  when  our  Saviour  was  taken  to 
be  destroyed,  he  was  brought  first  before  the  Sanhedrim,  hasti- 
ly assembled  in  the  high  priest's  house,  and  there,  after  the 
empty  show  of  a  trial,  declared  to  be  worthy  of  death.  Then, 
when  the}'  had  bound  him,  they  led  him  away  in  the  morning 
to  the  Judgment  Hall  of  the  (Jovernor,  and  urged  him  to  pass 
sentence  for  his  crucifixion.  Pilate  had  full  power,  as  he  said 
himself,  to  release  him,  (John  xix.  10  j)  but,  though  he  wa.- 
jrmvinced  of  his  innocence,  he  had  not  virtue  enough  to  let 
him  go,  while  there  sceir  d  a  danvr  that  his  own  interest 
might  suffer  by  a  refusal  to  gratify  the  Jews.  To  get  clear  of 
the  difficulty,  he  told  them  to  t  tke  him  themselves,  and  judge 
him  according  to  their  own  law.  l>ut  they  replied,  "It  is  not 
lawful  for  its  to  put  anv  man  to  death  ;"  they  wen;  determineo 
to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  his  death,  and  this  coulfl 
not  be  without  sentence  from  Pilate.  (John  xviii.  31.)  A' 
length,  after  an  in-'Hvctual  attempt  to  reason  -hem  out  of  theii 
;mrpose,  the  unfaithful  man  yielded,  and  delivered  up  tin 
Lord  of  ::!  n-y  to  be  nailed  upon  the  CTOM  Wh  -u  Stephen  wa» 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  19& 

J,  it  was  not  done  by  the  authority  of  the  Sanhedrim,  but 
in  an  unlawful  riot 

It  was  the  council  of  the  Sanhedrim  that  met  after  Lazarus 
were  raised  from  the  dead,  to  consider  what  measures  were  to 
be  taken  to  stop  the  growing  credit  of  Jesus,  when  Caiaphas, 
the  president,  at  once  declared  that  nothing  ought  to  be  though! 
of  but  fiis  death  ;  uttering  at  the  same  time  a  striking  pro- 
phecy, of  which  he  was  not  himself  aware.  (John  xi.  47 — 53.) 
Peter  and  John  were  brought  before  it,  at  a  later  period,  for 
preaching  "  through  Jesus  the  resurrection  from  the  dead." 
(Acts  iv.  5 — 21.)  -Afterward,  all  the  apostles  together  were 
brought  before  it,  and  beaten.  (Acts  v.  21 — 41.)  We  read 
of  it  also  in  the  history  of  Paul.  (Acts  xxii.  30,  xxiii.  1,  15 
•20,  28.) 

In  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  there  was,  according  to  Josephus 
an  inferior  tribunal  or  court  of  justice  in  every  city,  consisting 
of  seven  judges,  which  decided  onuses  and  punished  crimes  that 
were  not  so  important  or  difficult  as  to  require  their  being 
carried  before  the  Sanhedrim.  Before  the  Romans  took  away 
the  power  of  capital  punishment  from  the  nation,  this  court 
could  sentence  a  criminal  to  death  by  the  sword,  which  was 
considered  the  least  severe  sort  of  execution.  Stoning  was  held 
to  be  a  heavier  punishment,  and  could  be  inflicted  only  by  the 
great  council,  or  Sanhedrim.  Our  Saviour  referred  to  these 
different  tribunals,  when  he  set  forth  the  true  spirit  of  the 
sixth  commandment  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount.  He  taught, 
that  wrath  and  malice,  which  the  Jews  hardly  felt  to  be  sin? 
at  all,  would  certainly  be  called  into  account  and  punished, 
and  represented  anger  without  cause  to  be  worthy  of  a  punish- 
ment as  great  as  that  which  was  commonly  inflicted  for  kill- 
ing a  man, — which  tliev  looked  upon  as  the  only  crime  that 
broke  the  commandment.  "  \Vhosoever  is  angry  with  his  bro- 
ther without  :i  cause,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  jutfi/ment,  (or 
inferior  court;)  and  whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Raca, 
(a  word  of  scorn  and  contempt,)  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  coun- 
cil, (or  Sanhedrim  ;)  but  whosoever  shall  say,  Thou  fool,  (a 
word  of  spite  and  malicious  reproach,)  shall  be  in  danger  of 
hell  fire."  (Matt.  v.  22.)  Josephus  says,  this  court  of  seven 
in  every  city,  was  the  same  which  the  law  of  Moses  established 
from  the  first,  when  it  required  judges  and  officers  to  be  ap- 
}>  tinted,  as  we  have  seen  already.  There  was  a  still  smaller 
o.mrt  of  three  judges,  which  became  common  under  the  Roman 
LT'vernmont.  It  was  not,  however,  a  standing  tribunal  like  the 
others,  but  chosen  merely  for  the  occasion,  when  a  particulai 
ease  of  law  was  to  be  decided,  and  the  parties  were  willing  to 


200  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUI7IK8. 

have  it  settled  in  this  way.  Each  party  chose  one  man.  and 
the  two  thus  chosen  selected  a  third,  which  made  up  the.  tem- 
porary court.  The  same  plan  of  settling  disputes  l>y  arbitra- 
tion, is  common  among  ourselves.  This  privilege  the  Unman 
laws  allowed  to  the  Jews,  even  when  they  were  settled  in  other 
countries;  and  as  the  Christians  were  at  first  regaried  as  only 
a  sect  of  the  Jews,  they  likewise  enjoyed  the  same  advantage 
Hence,  the  apostle  censures  the  Corinthian  Christians  for  car- 
rying their  causes  before  heathen  magistrates,  when  they  had 
full  liberty  to  settle  them  among  themselves  in  the  way  now 
mentioned.  (1  Cor.  vi.  1 — 7.) 

The  Jewish  nation  enjoyed  many  privileges  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  Uomaus.  They  wen;  allowed  to  practice  their 
sacred  rites  and  to  continue  their  whole  manner  of  religion 
without  restraint;  to  hold  fast  their  ancient  customs;  and  to 
live  in  a  considerable  degree  according  to  their  own  laws. 
Yet  after  all,  as  appears  from  the  view  which  has  just  been 
taken,  their  condition  was  one  of  complete  dependence  and 
subjection.  With  the  coming  of  SHILOH,  we  beheld  the 
sceptre  departing  from  Judah  and  the  lawgiver  from  between 
his  feet,  to  be  restored  no  more.  (Gen.  xlix.  10.)  The 
governors  who  ruled  the  country  were  very  unjust  and  cruel, 
and  the  affairs  of  the  nation  were  miserably  managed.  For 
want  of  energy  in  the  government,  the  land  was  overrun  with 
robbers.  The  spirit  of  the  people  too  continually  tended  t«. 
make  the  matter  grow  worse  and  worse.  They  bore  the  yoke 
with  extreme  reluctance.  The  idea  if  being  in  bondage  and 
paying  tribute  to  a  Gentile  nation  \\-;is  not  to  be  supported 
quietly  by  Jewish  feelings.  "We  be  Abraham's  ?  ed,  an  1 
were  never  in  bondage  to  any  man  !"  was  the  language  which 
these  feelings  prompted,  in  the  very  midst  of  their  nation  il 
subjection.  (John  viii.  33.)  Such  feeling,  excited  as  it  was 
by  continual  provocation,  could  not  fail  to  give  rise  to  frequent 
tumults  and  insurrections;  and  these  still  served  to  produce 
new  evils,  only  causing  the  chain  of  bondage  to  be  drawn  with 
more  galling  tightness,  till  at  length,  after  desperate  confusion, 
violence,  and  war,  they  drew  down  complete  and  tremendous 
Jestruction  upon  the  whole  nation.  History  informs  us  of 
varirus  insurrections  made  under  different  leader?.,  who  per- 
•Hiaded  a  multitude  to  follow  them  with  the  wild  hope  of 
breaking  the  Roman  yoke.  There  was  always  a  large  class  of 
iin-n  in  the  country  who  maintained  that  it  was  unlawful  to 
nay  tribute  to  a  foreign  power;  the  law  of  Moses  forbade 
netting  up  a  stranger  t  >  be  king  over  the  n.tt  ion,  and  this. 
;•••  --onling  to  their  interpretation,  made  it  wrong  to  acknowledge 


THBIICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  201 

Bua  to  any  Gentile  king  or  emperor.  (Deut.  xvii.  15.) 
The  Pharisees  in  general,  held  this  sentiment,  though  they  did 
not  carry  it  out  in  open  rebellion.  The  Galileans,  however, 
who  sprung  chiefly  out  of  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  pushed  the 
loctrine  even  to  this  extremity.  They  rose  about  the  twelfth 
year  of  Christ,  when  Judea  was  first  joined  to  the  province  of 
Syria,  and  taxed  under  the  government  of  Cyrenius.  One 
Judas  of  Galilee  was  their  leader.  He  publicly  taught  that 
such  taxing  was  contrary  to  the  law  of  Moses,  and  "  drew 
away  much  people  after  him."  (Acts  v.  37.)  He  perished, 
and  his  followers  were  dispersed;  but  they  still  continued  to 
form  a  sect  in  the  land,  and  to  propagate  their  doctrines  after- 
ward. It  is  supposed  by  some,  that  the  Galileans  slain  by 
Pilate1  in  the  court  of  the  temple  were  of  this  sect.  (Luke  xiii. 
1,  2.)  The  Herwlians  were  a  political  party,  who  leaned  alto- 
gether to  excess  the  other  way.  They  had  their  name  from 
Herod,  and  seem  to  have  been  a  sort  of  court-pleasing  tribe, 
who  cared  very  little  for  law  or  religion,  when  they  did  not 
appear  to  agree  with  worldly  interest.  They  were  in  favour, 
therefore,  of  entire  submission  to  the  Romans,  and  were  not 
unwilling  to  have  introduced  into  the  country  many  of  their 
heathen  practices.  How  malicious  was  the  policy  which  the 
Pharisees  employed  on  a  certain  occasion  to  "  entangle  the 
Redeemer  in  Ins  talk."  (.Matt.  xxii.  15 — 22.)  Though 
violently  opposed  to  the  Herodians  in  general,  they  got  some 
of  them  to  unite  with  them  in  this  plan  to  injure  Christ,  and 
sent  them  together  with  some  of  their  own  disciples  to  propose 
to  him  the  much  disputed  question,  "Is  it  lawful  to  give 
tribute  unto  Caesar  or  not?"  If  he  had  said,  It  is  not  lawful, 
the  Herodians  were  ready  to  accuse  him  to  the  Roman  govern- 
ment as  a  person  opposed  to  its  authority ;  if  he  had  said,  ft 
is  /inrfuf,  the  Pharisees  would  have  charged  him  with  being 
unfriendly  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  so  as  to  bring  upon 
him  their  displeasure.  His  answer,  however,  by  its  excellent 
wisdom,  defeated  their  malevolence. 

In  this  state  of  bondage  and  uneasiness  which  the  nation 
endured,  its  expectation  was  strongly  turned  toward  the  Me>>iah 
that  wag  to  come.  According  to  the  Scriptures,  they  believed 
that  the  ti  ne  appointed  for  his  appearance  was  that  particular 
•i«re.  and  all  looked  for  it  as  a  thing  just  at  hand.  But,  alas, 
they  had  a  false  notion  entirely  of  his  character.  They  ex- 
pected one  who  would  come  with  great  splendour  and  power, 
to  deliver  them  from  <-arthly  bondage,  and  to  restore  their 
kingdom  to  all  the  glory  «>f  "irf/i/i/  freedom,  prosperity,  and 
victorious  strength.  They  thought,  that  the  thrune  of  Davi*1 


202  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

which  he  was  to  establish,  would  be  the  same  throne  of  worldlj 
dominion  th:it  had  been  set  up  of  old  in  the  midst  of  Israel 
after  the  flesh;  and  heuce  they  imagined,  that  the  promises  of 
God  concerning  the  continuance  of  this  throne,  made  it  ini- 
{Hiv-ible  that  the  nation  should  be  given  up  to  complete  ruin. 

When  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  therefore,  a  man  of  poor  and  ob- 
scure birth,  presented  himself  as  the  Messiah,  they  turned  from 
him  in  unbelief.  To  the  glory  of  that  spiritual  kingdom  which 
he  proposed  to  establish,  they  were  blind.  False  christs,  vain 
pretenders  to  be  the  Messiah,  who  took  upon  them  the  charac- 
ter of  worldly  importance  and  promised  to  deliver  them  from 
the  power  of  the  Romans,  were  more  favourably  received. 
Several  such  rose,  and  became  leaders  in  insurrection,  drawing 
multitudes  after  them.  (Matt.  xxiv.  23 — 27,  John  v.  43.) 
On  one  occasion,  after  a  great  miracle,  the  multitude  were  filled 
with  a  persuasion  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  the  Great 
1'rophet  that  was  to  come,  and  then  immediately  they  wanted 
to  take  him  by  force  and  make  him  a  king.  (John  vi.  14,  15.) 

As  the  spirit  of  opposition  to  government  prevailed  so  much 
in  those  times,  being  greatly  stirred  up  by  injustice  and  op- 
pression, and  as  among  the  Jews  it  was  attempted  to  be  justi- 
fied and  even  proved  a  duty  on  principles  of  religion ;  we  find 
the  apostles,  in  their  epistles,  strongly  urging  upon  Christians 
the  necessity  of  quiet  obedience,  not  only  for  fear  of  punish- 
ment, but  also  for  conscience'  sake.  (Rom.  xiii.  1 — 7,  1  Pet. 
ii.  13—17.) 


SECTION   IV. 
OF   KINGS. 

ANOINTING  with  oil  was  a  principal  ceremony  among  the 
Jews,  in  introducing  kings  to  their  office.  It  appears,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  not  thought  necessary  to  anoint  in  every  new 
succession  to  the  throne.  If  the  first  in  a  royal  line  had  been 
thus  set  apart,  it  was,  perhaps,  eun.-ioVred  sufficient  for  those 
that  followed,  unless  the  right  to  the  crown  was  disputed.  We 
do  not,  at  least,  read  of  the  ceremony  being  used  in  other 
eases.  Hence  the  king  was  called,  The  anoint,  <l  <m,-.  Thi<  is 
just  the  meaning  of  the  word  JA-N.S ////*,  and  also  of  the  word 
Christ.  These  names,  wl  ich  are  only  the  same  in  different 
languages,  were  given  to  the  Redeemer,  because  he  was  spiritu 
ill\  anointed  by  the  Holy  (Jh  i.-t  \.<  be  a  I'mmiKT,  a  J'lUKST, 
•nd  a  K  ING;  to:  the  same  ceremony  was  used  for  setting  apnrt 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  203 

prophets  also,  and  priests  to  their  office.  (Isa.  Ixi.   1,  Luke 
iv.  17—21,  Ps.  ex.  1 — t,  ii.  2,  6,  Acts  iv.  25 — 27,  x.  38.) 

The  Robe  whi  ;h  kings  wore  was  very  costly.  It  was  common, 
in  the  East,  to  have  it  of  purple  colour. — The  Diadem  glittered 
with  pearls  and  gems.  It  was  a  fillet,  about  two  inches  broad, 
bound  round  the  head  so  as  to  pass  the  forehead  and  temples, 
and  tied  behind.  Its  whole  workmanship  was  exceedingly  rich 
and  valuable.  The  colour  of  it  was  different  in  different  coun- 
tries. This  ornament,  as  veil  a.s  the  neck-chain,  and  bracelets 
for  the  arms,  was  worn  at  all  times.  In  the  £nglish  Bible,  it 
is  called  a  crown.  Other  croicnx,  however,  were  also  in  use, 
which  covered  the  whole  head;  but  of  their  form,  nothing  cer- 
tain is  known. — The  Throne  was  a  magnificent  seat  with  a  back 
and  arms,  of  such  height  as  to  need  a  footstool  for  the  feet  to 
rest  upon.  That  of  Solomon,  was  all  of  gold,  ornamented  with 
ivory,  and  was  so  high  as  to  have  six  steps  leading  up  to  it 
The  "throne"  became  a  natural  emblem  of  government  anc1 
power.  Hence  God  is  represented  as  sitting  upon  one;  and 
the  image  is  clothed  with  exceeding  grandeur,  by  making  hea- 
ven itself  his  throne,  and  the  earth  his  footstool.  (Isa.  Ixvi.  1, 
Matt.  v.  34.)  The  Sceptre  had  its  origin  perhaps  from  the 
Shepherd's  staff,  as  kings  were  styled  shepherds  f  equently  in 
early  times,  and  their  office  seems  to  have  been  derived  from 
the  authority  of  the  ancient  patriarchal  chiefs,  who  were  so 
often,  like  Abraham  and  Job,  but  great  master-shepherds,  at 
the  head  of  their  extensive  families.  Generally,  it  was  a 
wooden  rod  or  staff,  nearly  as  long  as  the  height  of  a  man, 
overlaid  with  gold  or  adorned  with  golden  studs  and  rings,  and 
having  an  ornamental  ball  on  the  upper  end.  (Ezek.  xix.  11.) 
A  sceptre  figuratively  denotes  dignity  and  dominion ;  a  sceptre 
of  riylUcowness  is  used  to  signify  just  government.) 

In  eastern  countries,  anciently  as  well  as  in  modern  times, 
the  courts  of  kings  were  distinguished  with  much  pomp  and 
princely  state.  Their  attendants  were  very  numerous.  Their 
palaces  were  constructed  in  magnificent  and  expensive  style, 
and  richly  furnished  with  ornaments.  Large  gardens  were 
connected  with  them,  in  which  walks,  groves,  and  fountains 
were  made  to  unite  in  the  most  agreeable  variety.  Great  pro- 
fusion marked  tb  i  royal  table;  and  large  wealth  of  costly  gar- 
ments filled  the  royal  wardrobe.  The  Jewish  kings  do  not 
seem  to  have  gei.c-rally  indulged  the  same  degree  of  luxury  and 
extravagance  that  was  common  in  some  other  countries,  such 
a?  Babylon  and  Persia;  yet  we  find  notices  of  much  that  was 
according  to  the  general  eastern  style  now  mentioned.  Solo- 
mon was  not  surpassed  by  the  monarchs  of  any  country  in  the 


204  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

splendour  of  his  royal  state.  He  made  full  experiment  of  all 
that  wtalth,  labour,  and  taste  could  procure  of  worldly  magnili- 
Lvnei  :  nut  according  to  hi.s  own  account,  he  found  it  to  be  all 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit.  (Eccl.  ii.  4 — 11.) 

i  ii  kinirs  of  the  present  day  very  rarely  make  their  ap- 
p  arance  in  public,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  great  difficulty  to  get 
access  to  them  in  any  way.  We  find  that  the  same  seclusion 
was  customary  in  ancient  times.  Among  the  Persians,  it  was 
deatli  for  any  pers  m  to  come  into  the  presence  of  the  monarch, 
without  being  invited.  (Esther  iv.  11.)  Among  the  Jews. 
however,  n  >  fashion  of  this  sort  ever  had  place;  their  kings 
allowe  1  themselves  to  be  seen  in  public^  and  approach  to  them 
was  not  forbidden.  Those  who  came  into  the  pre.-cnce  of  the 
king,  even  if  they  wen?  the  highest  officers  in  the  government, 
appeared  before  him  with  respectful  obedience,  and  stood,  like 
servants,  before  their  master.  Hence  the  phrase,  to  atantf  Lefurf 
tlie  kiny  means  to  be  occupied  in  his  service.  So  the  priests 
and  Levites  are  said  to  have  been  set  apart,  to  stand  brfort 
the  Lord  to  minister  unto  him.  (Deut.  x.  8.)  Gabriel  is 
spoken  of  as  st<iii</in</  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  to  signify  his 
readiness  to  perform  his  commands,  as  well  as  his  high  dignity 
in  being  so  admitted  to  appear  before  the  King  of  kings.  .(Luke 
i.  19.)  To  behold  the  king's  face  was  considered  an  honour 
and  happiness;  much  more  to  see  it  habitually,  that  is,  to  be 
employed  in  his  immediate  service  and  enjoy  his  favour.  Thus, 
also,  the  expression  to  see  God  signifies  to  experience  his  friend- 
ship, and  to  be  admitted  to  the  greatest  happiness  in  his  pre- 
sence; whereas,  not  to  see  him  is  to  be  shut  out  from  his  favour, 
and  to  be  under  his  awful  displeasure.  Christ  says  of  his 
humblest  followers,  that  in  heaven  their  angels  do  always  be- 
hold the  face  of  his  heavenly  Father;  referring  to  the  usage  of 
earthly  courts,  where  such  as  always  beheld  the  monarch'* 
face  were  highest  in  office  and  regard.  By  this,  he  signified 
that  these  "little  ones"  had  a  powerful  interest  in  heaven,  and 
were  peculiarly  dear  to  God  himself;  so  that  it  became  men 
to  take  heed  how  they  despised  them.  (Matt,  xviii.  10.)  To 
t!t  next  the  king,  especially  on  his  right  hand,  was  a  mark  of 
the  highest  honour  ana  dignity.  (1  Kings  ii.  19,  Matt. 
xx.  20—23,  Heb.  i.  3.) 

As  we  have  already  seen,  it  was  expected  in  early  times  that 
those  who  approached  kings  should  come  with  some  sort  of  a 
c resent.  The  most  profound  reverence  was  required  to  do  him 
honour,  according  to  the  ceremonious  manner  of  the  East. 
\mong  the  lVr>iaus,  the  homage  thus  presented  to  the  sove- 
reign was  little  less  than  idolatry  outright.  A  similar  homage 


BIDLIJAL    ANTIQUITIES  205 

•ra^  required  also  to  be  paid  to  his  chief  courtiers  and  favour- 
ites ,  and  to  refuse  it  was  considered  a  grievous  offence.  Thus, 
when  Hainan  was  promoted,  "all  the  king's  servants  that  wer 
in  the  gate  bowed  and  reverenced  him,"  and  great  wrath  waj 
excited  against  Mordecai  because  he  woxild  not  do  him  this 
honour.  (Esth.  iii  1 — 6.) 

When  eastern  sovereigns  go  abroad,  they  are  always  attended 
with  a  great  and  splendid  retinue.  The  same  custom  prevailed 
of  old.  The  Hebrew  kings  rode  on  asses  or  mules,  or  in  cha 
riots,  accompanied  by  their  guards ;  these  were  called,  in  the 
days  of  David,  Ckcrethites  and  Pehthites. — When  a  monarch 
m  those  regions  took  a  journey  into  distant  provinces,  because 
broad  and  convenient  roads,  such  as  we  have,  were  not  known 
it  was  common  to  send  a  messenger  before  him,  to  give  notico 
of  his  coming,  that  the  way  in  which  he  was  to  travel  might 
be  made  ready,  and  every  thing  else  necessary  prepared  foi 
his  approach.  When  they  were  to  pass  through  strange  and 
untravelled  regions,  they  had  a  way  opened  before  them,  some 
times  with  vast  labour;  precipices  were  digged  down,  and  hoi 
low  places  were  filled  up,  and  every  hindcrance  cleared  away 
To  this  practice,  there  is  beautiful  allusion  in  that  prophecy 
of  Isaiah:  "The  voice  of  him  that  crieth  in  the  wilderness 
Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord ;  make  straight  in  the  desert  a 
highway  for  our  God!  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every 
mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made  low :  and  the  crooked  shall 
be  made  straight,  and  the  rough  places,  plain:  and  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh  shall  see  it  toge- 
ther." (Isa.  xl.  3 — 5.)  While  the  prophet  thus  signified  that 
happy  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity  which  should  take 
place  in  the  time  of  Cyrus,  when  God  should  conduct  the  Jews, 
is  it  were,  in  all  t)  e  majesty  and  splendour  of  a  royal  march 
back  over  the  wilderness  and  hills  to  their  native  land  j  his 
words,  full  of  divine  animation,  looked  forward  at  the  same 
time  to  a  far  more  glorious  accomplishment,  which  that  firs! 
fulfilment  itself,  in  the  wise  ordering  of  God's  providence,  wa, 
made  to  shadow  forth  beforehand  as  its  feeble  type.  We  art 
taught  in  the  gospel,  that  John  the  Baptist  was  the  messenger 
sent  to  cry  in  the  wilderness,  and  that  the  Lord  whose  way 
was  to  be  prepared,  was  the  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ,  God  mani 
fest  in  the  flesh.  (Luke  i.  76,  iii.  8 — -6.  See  also  Mai.  iii.  1 

In   many  nations,  there  was  a  sort  of  general  royal  namv 
that  was  applied  to  their  monarchs  one  after  another  as 
matter   of  course  when   they  caine   to  sit  upon   the   throne 
Thus,  among  the  Romans,  the  emperors  were  for  a  long  tiiuf 
successivelv  styled  by  the  name  of  Caesar.     So  the  kings  of 

is 


206  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

the  ancient  Amalekitcs  seem  to  have  carried  in  common  the 
name  of  Aijaij ;  while  that  of  Hmlad  was  appropriated  to  tho 
king  of  Syria.  Abimeleck  was  used  in  the  same  way  among 
the  Philistines  for  some  time.  The  ancient  monarch*  of  Egypt" 
wore  called  in  succession  Pharaoh,  and  those  of  Persia,  in 
many  cases,  Darius;  each  of  these  two  names  were  originally 
only  common  words,  in  the  languages  of  those  countries,  which 
signified  simply  kiny  or  monarch.  In  later  times,  the  kings 
of  Egypt  bore  the  general  name  of  Ptolemy. 

Among  the  officers  that  were  commonly  connected  with  tne 
royal  court  among  the  Jews,  we  find  mention  made  of  Counsel 
Inr*.  Such  were  "  the  old  men  that  stood  before  Solomon 
while  he  lived."  (1  Kings  xii.  6 — 12.)  Prophet*  also  were  a 
sort  of  royal  officers.  Pious  kings  always  consulted  them , 
while  those  of  ungodly  character,  after  the  example  of  lu.-athrn 
monarchs,  applied  to  soothsayers  and  false  prophets.  Then 
we  read  of  the  Recorder,  or  writer  of  (In-  *t<il< -chronicles,  who 
kept  in  writing  a  regular  account  of  all  the  transactions  of  the 
king's  reigu ;  also  of  the  Scribe,  or  royal  secretary,  who 
registered  the  acts  and  decrees  of  government.  The  ///<//* 
Priest,  as  the  chief  minister  of  God  the  sovereign  of  the  nation, 
held  an  important  place  also  in  the  king's  court,  as  was  to  be 
expected  in  such  a  government.  These  that  have  been  men- 
tioned were  employed  to  give  counsel  or  to  act,  officially,  iu 
state  business.  Then  there  were  others,  whose  business  con- 
nected them  more  particularly  with  the  king's  <l»>n'*ti<  estab- 
lishment. Such  were  the  officers  who  provided  supplies  for 
the  king's  table.  Such  was  the  Governor  of  the  palace,  or 
royal  steward,  who  had  charge  of  all  the  servants,  and  of  the 
whole  household  management.  He  wore,  it  seems,  a  particular 
kiud  of  lobe,  bound  with  a  precious  girdle,  and  carried  a  key 
upon  his  shoulder,  as  a  mark  of  his  office.  (Lsa.  xxii.  15 — 22.) 
The  kiiKjs  friend  or  companion  was  a  person  whom  he  ad- 
.nitted  to  his  most  familiar  confidence,  and  who  was  trusted, 
when  occasion  required,  with  the  most  important  charges.  Aa 
we  have  already  noticed,  the  king  had  also  his  LifcyuarJ,  who 
in  the  time  of  David  were  called  Chercthites  and  Pelethitea 
These  were  soldiers,  employed  particularly  to  guard  the  palace 
and  the  king's  person.  When  sentence  of  death  was  pro- 
nounced on  any  person  by  the  king,  they  carried  it  into  exe- 
cution. They  were  sometimes  also  called  Runners,  because 
they  were  required  to  carry  tidings  of  the  royal  laws  and  edicts 
into  distant  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  at  times  to  run  before 
his  chariot. 

In  the  Roman   empire,  it  was  not  unusual  for  those  who 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  ^07 

wanted  to  be  clothed  with  the  dignity  of  kings  in  the  tributary 
kingdoms,  to  go  to  Home  for  the  purpose  of  soliciting  such 
favour  in  their  own  persons.  It  was  thus  Archelaus  went 
there,  some  time  after  his  father's  death,  to  have  hiii  will  con- 
firmed by  the  emperor,  and  to  receive  the  government  of  Judea. 
The  Jews,  by  reason  of  their  great  hatred  to  him,  sent  an  em- 
bassy of  fifty  men  at  the  same  time,  with  a  petition  to  Augus- 
tus that  they  might  be  allowed  to  live  according  to  their  laws, 
under  a  Roman  governor.  Archelaus,  however,  received  the 
kingdom,  and  when  he  came  back  inflicted  severe  punishment 
on  those  who  wanted  to  hinder  him  from  reigning.  In  one  of 
his  parables,  our  Lord  beautifully  alludes  to  this  custom  of  the 
times,  and  seems  to  have  had  the  well-known  case  of  Archelaus 
particularly  in  his  eye:  "A  certain  noblemen  went  into  a  far 
country,  to  receive  for  himself  a  kingdom,  and  to  return.  But 
His  citizens  hated  him,  and  sent  a  message  after  him,  saying, 
We  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us,"  &c.  (Luke  xix. 
12 — 27.)  The  application  of  the  parable  to  Christ  himself  is 
clear  and  striking.  He  was  going  to  heaven  to  receive  all 
power  from  his  Father,  and  would  afterward  return  to  take 
vengeance  on  those  who  rejected  him. 


SECTION   V. 

OF   PUNISHMENTS. 

TRIALS  in  early  times  were  simple  and  short.  The  places 
where  they  were  held,  as  we  have  seen  already,  were  the  gates 
of  cities.  Here  the  judges  were  accustomed  to  sit,  as  the 
place  of  greatest  public  resort.  The  accuser  and  the  accused 
appeared  before  them,  shun/in;/.  The  witnesses  were  sworn, 
and  examined  separately :  two  besides  the  accuser  himself  were 
necessary  to  establish  a  charge.  The  sentence  was  then  pro- 
nounced, according  to  the  wisdom  and  honesty  of  the  judges, 
and  without  any  delay  carried  into  execution. 

The  common  time  for  trying  causes  seems  to  have  been  in 
the  morning.  (Jer.  xxi.  12.)  By  the  later  Jews,  it  was  held 
unlawful  to  try  any  cause  of  a  capital  nature  in  the  night; 
and  also,  to  try,  pass  sentence,  and  put  it  in  execution  on  the 
-aine  day.  This  last  particular  was  entirely  disregarded,  in 
the  zeal  with  which  our  Saviour's  life  was  taken  away.  He 
<vas  seized  and  brought  to  the  high  priest's  palace  in  the  night; 
-<*  .-rxA/t  as  it  -irtis  </<>y,  he  was  tried  with  the  unholy  mocker  \ 
•*f  Justice;  early  in  the  morning  he  was  led  away  to  tUe  go 


208  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

rernor  to  be  sentenced  to  death ;  and  before  tl  3  sixib  hoar,  of 
DO m,  ho  was  lifted  up  upon  the  cross. 

The  design  of  punishments  in  human  governments,  is  to 
hinder  new  crimes,  or,  as  Moses  expresses  it,  that  all  the  peo 
pie  may  /inn-,  <t>t<l  fxir,  <nnl  do  no  more jrresnmi>tii»n*1y.  Of 
the  different  sorts  of  punishments  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures, 
sniiir  wore  peculiarly  Jewish  in  their  use,  and  others  were  em- 
ployed by  people  of  other  countries.  They  are  naturally  di- 
vided into  two  general  cla.<sses ; — such  as  were  capital,  or  took 
away  life,  and  such  as  were  not  thus  fatal.  We  shall  notice 
those  of  the  last  kind  first. 

PUNISHMENTS    NOT   CAPITAL. 

I.  SIN  AND  TRESPASS  OFFERINGS. — If  a  man  wilfully  and 
presumptuously  transgressed  the  ceremonial  law,  he  was  cut 
off  from  the    people;   but  if   he    transgressed   without  such 
deliberate  purpose,  through  error,  ignorance,  or  forgetfulness, 
the   law  could  be   satisfied  by   the  offering  of  an  appointed 
sacrifi  x.     Sacrifices  of  this  sort  had  in   them  the  nature  of 
punishment.     If  they  were  withheld,  in  the  cases  which  called 
for  them,  the  punishment  which  belonged  to  wilful  transgression 
was  incurred.     Some  offences,  also,  that  were  not  of  a  cere- 
monial nature,  and  even  in  certain  cases  such  as  had  boon 
committed  with  knowledge  and  design,  might  be  atoned  for 
in  the  same  way.     Cases  of  the  latter  class  were  all,  however, 
such  as  the  law  had  no  power  to  discover,  except  by  the  volun- 
tary confession  of  the  offender,  and  of  that  diameter  that  the 
gnu-nil  good  of  society  was  likely  to  be  promoted  by  the  en- 
couragement which  was  thus  offered  to  his  guilty  conscience 
to    make   acknowledgment    of  its   sin.       Together   with   the 
Trespass  offering  to  be  made  in  these  instances,  the  property 
that  had  been  dishonestly  acquired  was  to  be  restored,  together 
with  a  fifth  part  of  its  amount  added  to  a.     The  offerings  of 
which  we  speak  could  not,  of  course,  do  away  the  evil  which 
any  action  had  in  the  sight  of  God  most  Holy;  they  satisti-  <1 
merely  the  civil  and  the  ceremonial  law,  while  they  shadowed 
forth  in  type,  the  Great  Atonement  that  was  to  come.     For 
•jii   account  of  these  Sin  and  Trespass  Offerings,  and  of  the 
cases  in  which  they  were  to  be  employed,  see  the  fourth,  fifth, 
iind  sixth  chapters  of  Leviticus. 

II.  FINKS.— These  were  h"ii..  I'inirs  determined  by  the  per- 
*on  himself  who  had  been  injured,  in  certain   ea-.-s  where  tho 
'aw  appointed  a  severer  punishment,  but  allowed  him  to  accept, 
•f  he  chose,  a  satisfaction  of  this  sort  in  it*  stead.  (Ex.  xxi.  30, 
Num.  xxxv.  31,  3'2.)    In  other  instances,  fines  were  fixed  by 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  209 

?he  decision  of  the  judges,  or  expressly  determined  by  tLe  law. 
[n  cases  of  theft,  the  general  law  was,  that  double  the  amount 
stolen  should  be  restored ;  but  if  a  sheep  or  an  ox  that  had 
been  stolen  was  already  slain  or  sold,  the  restoration  for  the 
first  was  to  \&  four-fold ;  for  the  second,  Jive-fold.  When  the 
thief  was  unable  to  make  restoration,  he  was  sold,  with  his 
wife  and  children,  into  bondage.  (Ex.  xxii.  1 — 4.)  All  fines 
were  paid  to  the  injured  person;  the  government  received 
nothing  in  this  way. 

III.  SCOURGING. — This  was  a  very  common  punishment 
among  the  Jews,  in  all  ages  of  the  nation.  The  law  directed 
that  the  person  to  be  beaten  should  lie  down,  and  that  the 
blows,  which  were  never  to  be  more  than  forty,  though  they 
might  be  any  number  less,  according  to  the  crime,  should  be 
applied  to  his  back  in  the  presence  of  the  judge.  (Deut.  xxv. 
1—3.)  In  later  times,  he  was  tied  by  the  hands  to  a  low  pil- 
lar, and  stripped  down  to  the  waist.  For  fear  of  going,  by 
mistake,  beyond  the  precise  number  of  lashes  allowed,  it  became 
customary  not  to  give  over  thirty -nine ;  and  that  the  reckoning 
might  be  more  sure,  the  scourge  employed  had  three  lashes  or 
thongs,  so  as  to  give  three  stripes  at  once.  In  this  way,  thir- 
teen blows  made  out  the  thirty-nine  stripes.  In  the  time  of 
our  Saviour,  the  punishment  of  scourging  was  not  confined  to 
the  regular  courts  of  justice,  but  was  often  inflicted  also  in  the 
synagogues,  which,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  were  of  the  same 
nature  with  our  churches.  (Matt.  x.  17,  Acts  xxii.  19.)  Paul 
was  scourged  with/o/-ty  strij>i-s,  sm-i-  one,  no  less  than  five  times.. 
(2  Cor.  xi.  24.)  The  instrument  of  scourging  used  in  early 
times,  was  commonly  a  rod;  hence,  in  the  Old  Testament,  the 
rod  is  used  oftentimes  to  signify  any  punishment.  Cruelty  in- 
vented, for  its  own  gratification,  a  horrible  whip,  by  fixing  sharp 
iron  points,  or  nails,  or  pieces  of  lead,  to  the  end  of  thongs. 
This  seems  to  have  been  calLd  a  Scorpion.  (1  Kings,  xii.  11.) 
Among  the  Romans,  scourging  was  very  severe,  and  was  not 
limited  to  any  number  of  blows,  as  with  the  Jews.  Thus  the 
olessed  Redeemer  was  cruelly  beaten,  till  he  became  so  weak 
that  he  was  not  able  to  carry  his  cross  to  Calvary.  (Luke 
xxiii.  26.)  There  was  a  law,  however,  by  which  it  was  forbid- 
den to  punish  one  who  was  a  AWMM  »•/'//-./  «,  in  this  way.  (Acts 
xvi.  22,  23,  37,  xxii.  25.)  Paul  had  this  advantage,  some 
think,  because  he  was  born  at  Tarsus,  which,  for  its  services, 
had  been  made  a  free  city  by  Augustus  Caesar.  Others,  how- 
aver,  suppose  that  the  freedom  of  Tarsns  was  not  the  saiu" 
tLin,4  as  having  the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship,  because,  though 
the  chief  captain  knew  that  Paul  was  of  that  city,  he  yet 


210  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ordered  him  to  be  scourged,  (Acts  xxi.  30,^xxii.  2-1  ;)  tin-j 
HKiint.-iiii,  therefore,  that  the  apostle's  family  liad  obtained  tlio 
privilege  in  some  other  way.  However  it  w;.<,  lie  enjoyed  by 
birth,  what  Lvsias  had  secured  only  by  paying  a  irreat  jirti-r 
(Acts  xxii.  28.) 

IV.  CONFIM:MKNT. — As  sentence  of  punishment  was  in  ^e 
neral  carried  into  execution  very  soon  after  it  wa.-  pronounced, 
there  was  not  the  same  need  of  Prisons  as  among  us.  Crimi- 
nals were  sometimes  put  under  the  care  of  a  guard  ;  and  not 
unfrequently,  in  early  times,  they  were  shut  up  in  empty  cis- 
terns. At  a  later  period,  prisons  of  different  sorts  became  more 
common,  and  were  used  uot  only  to  keep  criminals  safe  for 
trial,  or  till  the  proper  time  for  executing  upon  them  some 
other  punishment,  but-  also  for  mere  confinement  itself  as  a 
punishment.  Prisoners  were  often,  in  addition  to  their  confine- 
ment, bound  with  chains.  After  the  captivity,  it  Ix'came  cus- 
tomary to  shut  up  in  prison  persons  who  failed  to  pay  their 
»/'///.s-,  after  the  example  of  other  nations.  Such  were  also  liable 
to  be  beaten  with  stripes,  and  to  be  put  to  different  kinds  of 
torture.  (Matt.  v.  25,  26,  xviii.  28 — 34.)  There  was  a  sin- 
gular way  of  binding  persons,  so  as  to  deprive  them  of  liberty, 
in  use  among  the  Romans.  It  was,  to  fasten  the  prisoner  to  a 
soldier,  by  a  chain  passing  from  the  arm  of  one  to  that  of  the 
other.  In  this  way,  he  was  continually  attended  with  a  irnard, 
who  could  not  for  a  moment  forsake  his  charge,  even  if  he  had 
himself  been  so  disposed.  The  apostle  Paul  was  confined  in 
this  manner.  Thus  coupled  to  a  soldier  that  kept  him,  he 
"dwelt  two  whole  years  in  his  own  hired  house,"  at  Home. 
(Acts  xxviii.  16,  30.)  He  was  not,  therefore,  hindered  from 
seeing  any  that  chose  to  visit  him,  and  might,  if  he  pleased,  go 
abroad  out  into  the  city.  But  to  be,  in  this  way,  compelled  to 
wear  a  chain  at  all  times,  was  to  be  constantly  under  the  great- 
est disgrace  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  Hence,  many  who  be- 
fore showed  some  friendship  to  him,  became  ashamed  to  ac- 
kn  iwledge  acquaintance  with  him,  and  treated  him  with  cold 
neglect.  Thus  acted  not  all,  however.  "The  Lord  give  mercy 
to  the  house  of  Onesiphorus,"  he  writes,  "for  he  oft  refreshed 
me,  and  was  not  ashanx'il  <>/ in>/  chain;  but,  wh-m  he  was  in 
Rome,  he  sought  me  out  very  diligently,  and  found  /ne  !" 
(2  Tim.  i.  16,  17.)  Sometimes  the  prisoner  was  bound,  by  a 
chain  from  each,  arm  to  two  soldiers.  Thus  Peter  was  sleeping 
in  prison,  on  that  memorable  night  when  the  angel  of  the  Lora 
delivered  him  by  miracle.  (Acts  xii.  6.)  Persons  who  were 
Trusted  with  the  care  of  prisoners  were  liable,  not  unfrequently, 


BIBLICAL    ANT.'QUJTIES  211 

to  bo  punislx  d  with  death  if  they  let  them  escape.  (Acts  xil 
19,  xvi.  27.) 

V.  KKTALIATIUN. — The  nature  of  this  punishment  may  be 
learned  from  Ex.  xxi.  H3 — 25,  and  Lev.  xxiv.  19 — 22.     See 
also  l)eut.  xix.  1(5 — 21,  where   the  punishment  for  false. wit- 
uess  is  determined  on  the  siine  general  principle.     The  injured 
person  might  agree  with  the  offender,  in  common  cases  where 
retaliation  was  appointed  by  the  law,  to  receive  a  sum  of  money 
as  a  satisfaction  in  its  room,  and  this  either  before  or  after  the 
decision  of  the  judge.     The  law  which  authorized  retaliation 
was  merely  a  dill  one,  appointing  punishment  in  this  way  on 
the   same  principle  that  was  regarded  in  the  appointment  of 
any  other  punishment,  and  did  no  more  give  countenance  to 
feelings  of  private  revenue,  than  the  law  which  commanded  the 
use  of  the  scourge  gave  liberty  to  indulge  a  malicious  or  cruel 
disposition.     The  Jews,  however,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour, 
did  not  make  this  distinction,  but  interpreted  the  law  as  if  it 
was  a  moral  one,  and  furnished  a  right  rule  for  the  regulation 
of  the  heart  and  life.     Our  Lord  taught  that  a  very  different 
rule  ought  to  be  followed  when  this  was  in  view.  (Matt.  v. 
38—42.) 

V I .  KXCOM  MUNICATION.    As  religion  and  government  were 
blended   inseparably  together  among  the  Jews,  to  be  cast  out 
of  the  church  was  a  cicil  punishment  as  well  as  an  ecclesiastical 
one.     We  have  no  account  of  it  being  employed  till  after  the 
captivity.    The  later  Jews  made  three  degrees  of  it.    The  first 
was,  when  a  person  was  cast  out  of  the  synagogue  and  forbidden 
to  have  any  intercourse  with  society,  even  with  his  own  family, 
for  the  space  of  thirty  days;  and  if  he  did  not  repent  at  the 
end  of  that   time,  the  excommunication  was  repeated.     The 
secom/  was  more  solemn  and  severe,  beiig  pronounced  with  a 
curse :  it  was  not  lawful  for  anybody  to  «11  to  such  as  were 
under  it,  even  the  necessaries  of  life.     The  third  was  even  more 
severe,  cutting  off  the  guilty  person  absolutely  and  entirely  from 
all  connection  with  his  countrymen,  and  solemnly  committing 
him  to  the  hands  of  God,  whose  awful  judgment  was  near  at 
hand. 

CAPITAL   PUNISHMENTS. 

We  come  now  to  the  consideration  of  CAPITAL  punishments. 
The  first  mention  of  such  punishment  is  found  in  Gen.  ix.  6. 
Wlioxo  .</!»/</' t/i  man's  bfafxt,  by  wan  shall  his  blood  be  shfd. 
Such  was  the  commandment  of  God.  The  way  in  which  the 
oriui'oal  was  to  be  put  to  death,  was  left  to  be  determined  by 
uen 


Il2  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

THE  BLOOD-AVENGER. — In  the  earliest  times,  it  was  lefi 
»ltogcthcr  to  the  nearest  relation  of  the  person  that  had  beer, 
killed,  to  execute  punishment  upon  the  murderer.  In  the 
vommon  sentiment  of  society,  this  was  not  only  his  r/V////,  but 
his  duty,  also;  so  that  disgrace  and  reproach  fell  upon  him,  if 
he  failed  to  perform  it.  Hence,  it  became  with  such  an  one,  a 
irreat  point  of  honour  not  to  leave  the  blood  of  his  kinsman 
unrevcni^ed,  and  this,  added  to  the  keen  feeling  of  anger  which 
naturally  raged  in  his  bosom,  urged  him  to  make  the  greatest 
exertions  to  overtake  and  destroy  the  person  by  who.se  hand  it 
h.-i'l  been  shed.  This  plan  of  punishment  was  the  most  natural 
one  in  that  simple  state  of  society  which  was  first  common. 
Hence,  it  prevailed  among  all  people ;  and  .because  the  manners 
of  many  nations  in  the  East  have  been  handed  down  with  very 
little  alteration  from  the  most  ancient  days,  it  still  prevails  to 
a  considerable  extent  in  that  part  of  the  world.  It  is  in  use 
also  among  the  Indians  of  our  own  country,  and  in  various 
countries  of  Africa.  It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  that  such  a  plan 
must  be  attended  with  most  serious  evil.  It  is  adapted  to 
cherish  feelings  of  bitterness  and  revenge,  and  to  make  them 
seem  honourable;  it  is  not  likely  to  distinguish  between  wilful 
murder,  and  such  as  happens  without  design ;  an<l  m  >iv  than 
this,  it  tends  to  produce  lasting  feuds  between  families,  one  re- 
venge still  calling  for  another,  and  blood  continually  delimit- 
ing new  blood,  so  that,  in  the  end,  instead  of  one  life,  many 
are  cruelly  destroyed,  in  consequence  of  a  single  murder.  Thus 
it  is  remarkably  among  the  Arabs:  families,  and  sometimes 
whole  tribes,  are  set  against  each  other  in  deadly  hatred  and 
war,  by  the  retaliation  which  a  crime  of  this  sort  produces;  and 
the  enmity  is  handed  down  from  fathers  to  sons  as  a  sacred 
iiih'Titanee,  until  either  one  party  is  completely  destroyed,  or 
satisfaction  made,  such  as  the  side  to  whom  the  injury  \va.s 
first  done  may  agree  to  accept.  The  true  interest  of  society, 
therefore,  requires  that  a  different  plan  of  punishment  should 
be  secured;  that  its  execution  should  be  taken  out  of  the  handa 
of  the  nearest  relation,  and  put  into  those  of  the  civil  magis- 
tral 

This  most  ancient  plan  of  punishment,  in  case  of  murder, 
wa."  the  <ne  in  use  among  the  Jews  before  the  time  of  .M 
foi  'It-  .I/ •••iii/i-r  »/  lilnixl  is  spoken  of,  in  the  law  which  he 
i  character  well  known.  Under  the  direction  of  God, 
Ir-  ili-1  not  do  awav  the  old  custom  altogether ;  for  although  in 
it^  \\-li  •!  •  na'ure  it  was  an  evil,  t'.ie  feelings  of  the  people  were, 
nevertheless,  so  thoroughly  wedded  to  it.s  usage,  that,  without 
x  miraculous  control  upon  their  minds  it  was  not  to  be  ?«. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  213 

pcctod  they  would  consent  to  relinquish  entirely  the  right  of 
private  vengeance  which  it  allowed.  Some  indulgence,  there- 
fore, was  granted  in  this  case,  it  seems,  like  that  which  was 
permitted  in  the  case  of  divorce,  "on  account  of  the  hardness 
of  their  hearts."  (Matt.  xix.  8.)  At  the  same  time,  a  roont 
beautiful  and  wise  arrangement  was  made,  to  correct  the  moat 
serious  disadvantages  with  which  it  had  been  before  accompa- 
nied, which,  in  fact,  while  it  left  some  form  of  the  ancient 


m 


rustom,  gave  it  a  new  unfit  re  altogether.  Cities  of  refuge  '.rere 
appointed,  three  on  each  side  of  Jordan,  with  straight  and  good 
roads  leading  to  them  from  every  direction,  to  any  of  which 
the  murderer  might  fly  ;  and  if  he  got  into  it  before  the  Aven- 
ger overtook  him,  he  was  safe  from  his  rage  until  he  had  a 
fair  trial.  If  it  was  found  that  he  was  indeed  guilty  of  wilful 
murder,  he  was  delivered  up  to  the  Avenger  to  be  destroyed, 
and  not  even  the  altar  was  allowed  to  protect  him ;  but  if  it 
was  found  that  the  murder  had  not  been  intentional,  he  was  al- 
lowed to  remain  in  the  city  of  refuge,  where  none  might  come 
to  do  him  evil ;  and  on  the  death  of  the  high  priest,  he  might 
return  in  security  to  his  own  home.  (Ex.  xxi.  12 — 14,  Num. 
xxxv.  9—29,  Deut.  iv.  41 — i3,  xix.  1—13,  Josh.  xx.  1—9.) 
STONINO  was  the  punishment  which  the  law  of  Moses  most 
generally  appointed  for  crimes  that  called  for  death.  The  wit- 
nesses were  required  to  throw  first,  and  then  all  the  people 
that  were  present,  till  the  miserable  criminal  was  overwhelmed 
with  death.  (Deut.  xvii.  7,  Jol>a  viii.  7.)  This  seems  to  he 


214  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

the  punishment  we  am  to  understand,  in  all  cases  whore  thf 
way  of  putting  to  death  is  not  expressly  mentioned.  (Lev.  xx. 
10,  compared  with  .John  viii.  5.  Also  Ex.  xxxi.  14,  with 
Numb.  xv.  85,  30.)  Another  method  of  taking  away  life  waa 
by  the  SWORD.  Among  the  Egyptian-,  />'  h>-«<lin</  was  a 
common  punishment,  (Gen.  xl.  17 — 19;)  and  in  the  later 
times  of  the  nation,  the  rulers  of  the  Jews  sometimes  made  use 
of  it.  (Matt.  xiv.  8  —12,  Acts  xii.  2.)  But  among  the  ancient 
Israelites,  this  way  of  execution  was  not  practised.  Punish- 
ment by  the  sword,  whicl.  has  li,vii  sometimes  confounded  with 
it,  was  inflicted  in  whatever  way  the  executioner  found  it  most 
convenient  to  use  the  weapon ;  he  probably  thrust  it  mosi 
commonly  into  the  bowels  of  the  criminal.  Hence,  he  waa 
said  to  rush  or  fall  iifxni  him.  (1  Kings  ii.  25,  29,  31,  34,  46.) 

These  two  were  the  only  capital  punishments  that  belonged 
properly  to  the  Israelites.  There  were,  however,  besides  them, 
certain  marks  of  infamy  sometimes  inflicted  on  the  dead  bodies 
of  criminals,  to  add  to  the  shame  and  disgrace  of  their  death. 
Such  was — 1.  Burning  the  body  after  it  had  been  stoned. 
(Gen.  xxxviii.  24,  Lev.  xxi.  9,  Josh.  vii.  15,  25.)  2.  llnmj- 
imj  it  on  a  tree  or  gibbet :  the  person  thus  suspended  was  said 
to  be  accursed  of  GW,  an  abomination  in  his  sight.  (Deut. 
xxi.  22,  23.)  3.  Henphnj  Kdmca  over  the  place  where  it  lay, 
as  a  monument  of  shame.  (Josh.  vii.  26,  viii.  29,  2  Sam. 
xviii.  17.) 

Various  other  capital  punishments  are  mentioned  or  referred 
to  in  the  Bible,  that  were  in  use  among  other  nations,  some  of 
which  also  were  introduced  among  the  Jews,  as  they  came  to 
have  more  intercourse  than  at  first  with  foreign  countries.  Of 
this  sort  were  Beheading,  already  noticed,  which  was  practised 
among  the  Egyptians,  Persians,  Greeks  and  Romans;  Stran- 
yti'if/,  (1  Kings  xx.  Bit)  Jin  mini/  <tlir<  in  a  furnace,  which 
was  used  among  the  Chaldeans,  (Dan.  iii.  6,  11,  15 — 27,  Jer. 
xxix.  22 ;)  fJ.rju^i/ii/  tn  in'/if  lifiistx,  (Dan.  vi.  7,  12,  16 — '24, 
1  Cor.  xv.  32 ;)  1^-ntinij  tn  death,  which  among  the  Greeks 
was  inflicted  on  slaves;  Cutting  asunder,  and  Snwinij  uxmnlrr. 
(Dan.  ii  5,  Luke  xii.  46,  Heb.  xi.  87.)  Isaiah,  the  Jews 
say,  was  sawn  asunder  by  Manassch ;  but  perhaps  the  story  is 
only  one  of  their  numberless  fables.  There  were  various  other 
contrivances,  some  of  them  very  cruel,  to  put  men  to  a  violent 
death,  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  mention.  One  more,  how- 
pver,  calls  for  notice ;  and  it  is  entitled  to  particular  considera- 
tion. I  mean  the  Cross. 

Cm  CIKIXION  was  a  common  method  of  punishment  among 
•several  ancient  nations;  especially  among  the  Persians,  Cartha- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  '215 

i^inians,  and  Ilomans.  It  was  according  to  its  use  with  the 
latter  people,  that  the  Jews  became  acquainted  with  it;  and  it 
was  because  he  was  put  to  death  by  Roman  authority,  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  made  to  suffer  its  cruel  torture.  (John 
xviii.  31,  32,  xii.  32 — 34.)  The  cross  was  employed  among 
the  Ilomans  as  a  punishment  for  robbers,  assassins,  and  rebels. 
Slaves  especially,  when  they  were  guilty  of  great  offences,  were 
put  to  death  in  thfs  way.  Hence,  crucifixion  was  held  to  be 
the  most  shameful  and  degrading  death  which  a  man  could 
suffer.  The  cross,  in  public  opinion,  had  in  it  even  more  of 
disgrace  and  reproach  than  the  (/allows  now  has  with  us.  It 
was  therefore  an  exceeding  humiliation  which  the  ever-blessed 
Redeemer,  who  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God, 
consented  to  endure,  when,  "  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man, 
he  humbled  himself  and  became  obedient  unto  death — even  the 
death  of  the  cross."  (Phil.  ii.  6 — 8,  Heb.  xii.  2.)  So  great 
was  the  degradation  of  such  a  death  esteemed  to  be  universally, 
that  a  most  powerful  prejudice  against  the  gospel  was  every- 
where excited,  on  account  of  its  author  having  suffered  the 
shame  of  dying  in  this  way.  The  Gentiles  were  ready  to  treat 
the  apostles  with  the  greatest  contempt,  for  preaching  a  reli- 
gion, that  offered  salvation  by  the  death  of  a  man  that  had  been 
crucified ',  and  it  continued  to  be  long  after  a  taunting  reproach 
cast  upon  Christians,  that  their  leader,  whom  they  worshipped 
as  a  God,  had  expired  as  a  malefactor  on  the  cross.  The  scan- 
dal of  such  a  death  was  no  less  in  the  estimation  of  the  Jews ; 
and  besides,  they  considered  the  person  who  suffered  it  to  be 
<t<-<- <i  r.wd  of  God,  according  to  the  law  in  Deut.  xxi.  23,  which 
declares  every  one  that  is  hanged  upon  a  tree  to  be  thus  made 
a  curse.  (Gal.  iii.  13.)  To  trust  in  such  an  one  as  the  great 
.Mo-iah  and  Saviour,  was  therefore  in  their  view  the  greatest 
madness  and  folly.  (1  Cor.  i.  23,  24.)  The  apostles,  on  the 
other  hand,  and  all  such  as  were  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  laj 
hold  of  eternal  life  by  faith,  gloried  in  their  Master's  cross 
What  to  others  seemed  shameful  and  vile,  they  esteemed  most 
precious  and  worthy  of  all  admiration.  In  the  face  of  the 
world,  they  counted  all  things  but  loss  for  the  sake  of  Christ 
<ind  HIM  CRUCIFIED.  (Rom.  i.  16,  1  Cor.  ii.  1,  2.) 

When  the  sentence,  thou  shalt  go  to  tJie  cross,  was  passed  by 
the  magistrate  upon  any  one,  the  unhappy  man  was  in  the  fire* 
place  stripped  of  all  his  clothes,  with  only  a  single  covering 
left  around  the  loins,  and  severely  scourged  with  rods  or  whips. 
So  cruel  was  the  scourging,  that  death  sometimes  took  place 
under  it.  After  this  treatment,  which  in  a  great  measure  took 
away  all  his  strength,  he  was  compelled  to  carry  the  cros*  on 


216  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

which  he  was  to  be  hung,  (and  it  was  by  no  means  a  light  bur- 
den,) to  the  place  of  execution.  This  was  commonly  a  hill 
near  the  public  roa'l,  not  far  out  of  the  city  or  town.  As  he 
[cissed  along  the  way  to  this  place,  smarting  with  pain,  and 
ready  to  faint  by  reason  of  the  dreadful  stripes  he  had  already 
received,  and  groaning  under  the  weight  of  his  own  cross,  the 
unfeeling  rabble  loaded  him  with  insult,  mockery  and  wanton 
cruelty.  Having  reached  the  appointed  spot,  the  infamous 
f /•>'•,  as  it  was  sometimes  called,  was  taken  from  his  shoulder 
and  firmly  fixed  in  the  ground.  It  consisted  of  a  piece  of  tim- 
ber standing  upright  like  a  post,  not  generally  more  than  ten 
feet  high,  and  crossed  by  another  considerably  smaller,  either 
altogether  at  the  top,  so  as  to  resemble  in  its  whole  form  the 
letter  T,  or  only  a  little  distance  below  it.  The  person  to  be 
crucified,  having  first  been  presented  with  some  kind  of  stupi- 
fying  drink,  to  deaden  the  sense  of  pain,  was  then  lifted  up, 
and  nailed  to  the  fatal  wood  by  four  large  spikes,  driven  one 
through  each  hand  and  foot.  The  hands  were  fastened  to  the 
cross  piece,  with  the  arms  stretched  out  and  raised  somewhat 
above  the  head  ;  the  feet,  to  the  upright 
beam,  down  toward  the  ground.  To 
prevent  the  hands  from  being  torn  away 
from  the  nails  by  the  weight  of  the  body, 
there  was  a  short  piece  of  wood  made  to 
stick  out  from  the  middle  of  the  beam 
just  mentioned,  for  the  sufferer  to  sit 
upon.  Hence,  he  was  sometimes  said  to 
r'nl,  IIJHIH  tli,  rmss,  or,  to  rest  upon  the 
X/KII-/I  (-/-ruts.  On  the  eross  piece,  directly 
over  his  head,  as  he  hung  thus  exposed 
to  the  gazing  multitude,  an  inscription 
or  title  was  fixed,  declaring,  in  large  let 
ters,  the  crime  for  which  he  was  thus  punished.  In  some  cases, 
the  condemned  person  was  nailed  to  the  cross  before  it  was 
set  up,  and  so  lifted  up  together  with  it,  when  it  was  raised  and 
fixed  in  its  proper  standing  position.  The  first  method,  how- 
ever, seems  to  have  been  the  most  common.  The  execution 
was  performed  by  four  soldiers,  each  of  them  driving  one  of  the 
spikes,  who,  it  appears,  had  a  right,  on  account  of  this  service, 
to  the  garments  of  the  man  that  was  put  to  death.  (John  xix. 
23,  24.)  In  this  awful  situation  the  victim  of  the  cross  was 
left  to  suffei,  till  death  cam  •  to  relieve  him  from  its  power. 
This,  however,  did  not  take  place  commonly  till  the  third,  and 
frequently  till  the  fourth  or  fi?th  day.  (  Mark  xv.  44.)  While 
tny  sigua  of  life  appeared,  the  cross  was  watched  by  a  guard. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  217 

After  death,  the  body  was  often  left  hanging  till  it  wasted  away 
with  corruption,  or  was  devoured  by  birds  of  pn-y  and  raven- 
ous beasts ;  (for  it  was  generally  so  low.  that  these  last  could 
reach  at  least  the  lower  part  of  it.)  In  the  province  of  Judea, 
however,  it  was  allowed  to  depart  from  the  general  practice,  by 
way  of  indulgence  to  the  Jews,  with  whom  it  was  not  lawful  to 
leave  a  malefactor's  body  all  night  upon  a  tree  or  any  sort  of 
gibbet.  (l)eut.  xxi.  23.)  Among  them,  therefore,  crucified 
persons  were  buried  on  the  day  of  their  crucifixion  ;  and  their 
death,  on  that  account,  was  hastened  by  other  means,  such  aa 
kindling  a  fire  under  the  cross,  letting  wild  beasts  loose  upon 
them,  or  breaking  their  bones  with  a  mallet  In  the  case  of 
our  Saviour,  no  such  means  were  necessary  :  he  died  in  a  few 
hours  j  but  to  be  sure  that  he  was  rea  iy  dead,  one  of  the  sol- 
diers pierced  his  side  with  a  spear.  (John  xix.  31 — 35.) 

Such  was  the  manner  of  death  which  the  Lord  of  glory  hum- 
bled himself  to  endure,  when  he  laid  down  his  life  for  a  sinful 
and  ruined  world.  His  crucifixion  was  attended,  while  it  lasted, 
with  all  the  circumstances  of  indignity  and  horror  that  usually 
accompanied  the  punishment.  But  it  was  marked,  besides, 
with  peculiar  and  extraordinary  inhumanity,  such  as  common 
custom  was  not  acquainted  with.  It  was  a  scene  of  the  most 
unfeeling  insult  and  cruelty,  from  its  commencement  to  its 
close.  Jews  and  Gentiles  joined  to  accomplish  the  work  of 
shame  and  awful  guilt.  In  the  high  priest's  palace  it  began. 
There,  we  are  told,  the  Son  of  God  was  treated  with  the  most 
bitter  and  malicious  scorn.  They  insulted  him  by  spitting  in 
his  face ;  they  buffeted  him ;  they  covered  his  eyes  ~nd  then 
struck  him  with  the  palms  of  their  hands,  saying,  in  mockery 
of  his  claim  to  be  the  Messiah  from  heaven,  Prophecy  unto  us, 
thou  Christ,  who  is  he  that  smote  thee  ?  (Matt.  xxvi.  67,  68.) 
The  very  servants  were  encouraged  to  abuse  him  in  this  way. 
(Mark  xiv.  (55.)  When  sent  to  Herod,  the  proud  prince  with 
hi*  men  of  war  sat  him  at  nought,  and  mocked  him,  and  ar- 
rayed him  in  a  gorgeous  robe.  Before  Pilate's  bar,  the  chief 
priests  and  elders  accused  him,  in  language  of  bitterness  and 
reproach,  of  the  worst  crimes;  charging  him  with  sedition  and 
blasphemy,  and  representing  him  to  be  a  malefactor  whose 
guilt  cried  loudly  for  the  heaviest  vengeance  of  the  law.  The 
multitude  without,  excited  by  their  religious  rulers,  insisted 
with  tumultuous  and  violent  cry,  that  he  should  be  sentenced 
to  tlit;  jross.  The  governor,  though  he  had  no  doubt  of  his  in- 
aocence,  at  length  gave  way  to  their  importunity,  and  ordered 
iiin  to  be  scourged,  as  a  preparatory  step  to  his  execution 
The  Komaii  soldiers  then  caused  the  work  of  wanton  mocker? 

19 


-'!'  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

lo  be  renewed.  In  derision  of  him,  as  one  that  aspired  to  )  e 
a  king,  they  stripped  him,  and  put  on  him  an  old  robe  of  royal 
colour;  and  when  they  had  platted  a  crown  of  thorns,  they 
put  it  up  >n  his  head,  and  a  reed  in  his  right  hand,  for  a  acep- 
tre ;  and  they  bowed  the  knee  before  him,  and  mocked  him, 
Baying,  Flail,  king  of  the  Jews!  Then  they  spit  upon  him, 
tin  I  took  the  reed,  and  smote  him  on  the  head,  cruelly  forcing 
the  thorn*  to  pierce  it  on  every  side.  Thus  arrayed,  exhausted, 
and  toru  with  the  stripes  of  the  scourge,  and  disfigured  with 
blood  trickling  from  his  temples  and  over  his  face,  the  governor 
brought  him  out  before  the  people,  hoping  that  they  might  yet 
be  moved  to  pity  by  such  a  sight,  and  consent  to  his  release. 
But  the  cry  of  priests  and  people  was  renewed  with  unrelent- 
ing rage,  Crucify,  crucify  him  !  Away,  away  with  him  !  And 
when  he  seemed  determined  to  let  him  go,  on  account  of  some 
new  conversation  which  he  had  with  him,  a  loud  threat  was 
sounded  in  his  ears :  "  If  thou  let  this  man  go,  thou  art  not 
Caesar's  friend."  (John  xix.  1 — 12.)  This  overcame  his  reso- 
lution :  he  knew  that  the  emperor,  Tiberius  Caesar,  was  a  most 
suspicious  and  jealous  prince,  aud  ever  ready  to  listen  to  charges 
of  treason  and  opposition  to  his  authority,  that  were  brought 
against  inferior  rulers  in  the  empire ;  and  that  it  was  not  at  all 
unlikely  that  an  accusation  against  himself,  such  as  the  Jews 
threatened,  might,  if  carried  to  Rome,  be  enough  to  ruin  him. 
Accordingly,  for  the  sake  of  his  worldly  interest,  he  resisted 
all  the  remonstrances  of  conscience,  and  ordered  the  execution 
to  proceed.  So  they  led  him  away  to  be  crucified.  Bearing 
his  cross,  and  ready  to  sink  under  its  weight,  he  went  fort' 
through  the  city  toward  the  place  of  death,  insulted,  derided, 
and  abused,  no  doubt,  by  the  surrounding  multitude,  the  whole 
way.  His  strength,  however,  was  found  before  long  to  be  so 
far  taken  away  by  his  sufferings,  that  he  could  not  possibly 
support  his  burden :  as  they  came  out  of  the  gate  of  the  city, 
therefore,  they  laid  hold  upon  one  Simon,  a  Cyrenia-n,  that  was 
coming  from  the  country,  and  on  him  they  laid  tin-  cros.-.,  that 
he  might  bear  it  after  Jesus.  When  they  had  reached  Calva- 
ry, they  offered  him  the  stupifying  liquor,  (which  he  refuse*' 
to  drink,)  and  nailed  him  to  the  dreadful  tree,  placing  him  be 
tween  two  malefactors,  as  if  he  was  not  merely  of  the  same  in 
famous  character,  but  vilest  of  the  three.  It  was  probably  as 
*hey  were  driving  the  spikes  through  his  hands  and  feet,  that 
he  lifted  to  Heaven  that  affecting  prayer  :  "Father,  forgive 
'h'  HI,  tor  they  know  not  what  they  do  !"  The  four  soldiers 
wlio  fastened  the  nails,  with  eoUkbiooded  indifference,  took  hi« 
raiment  au  their  spoil,  and  parted  it  among  them  iu  his  pr- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  216 

•«nce.  While  he  hung,  tortured  with  anguish  through  all  his 
frame,  he  was  assailed  on  every  side,  in  the  most  hard-hearted 
manner,  with  taunting  irony  and  scornful  ridicule.  "  The; 
that  passed  by  reviled  him,  wagging  their  heads,  and  saying, 
Thou  (lint  datrrlyt&  th>  t>-mj>/'-  find  buildest  it  in  three  '/".'/*, 
tun-  thywlfl  If  thnu  be  the  &»n  of  God,  come  >lou:n  from  tkf 
crow!  Likewise,  also,  the  chief  priests,  mocking  him,  with 
the  scribes  and  elders,  said,  He  saocd  other*;  himxelf  he  can- 
not save!  If  he  be  the  kimj  of  Jxrael,  let  him  now  come  down 
from,  the  cross,  and  we  will  Mieve  him.  He  trusted  in  Gotl ; 
let  him  deliver  him  now,  if  he  will  have  him  ;  for  he  said,  I 
am  the  8on  of  God."  It  was  surely  an  awful  spectacle,  when 
the  Holy  and  Just  One  was  thus  subjected  to  anguish  and 
loadei  with  reproach,  by  sinful  mortals. 

The  pain  that  was  suffered  in  crucifixion  was  exceedingly 
severe.  By  reason  of  the  scourging,  the  back  was  all  torn 
with  wounds,  and  these  being  exposed  to  the  air,  became,  by 
their  inflammation,  a  source  of  keen  distress.  Because  the 
hands  and  feet  abound  particularly  with  nerves,  which  are  the 
instruments  of  all  feeling,  nails  driven  through  these  parts 
could  not  fail  to  create  the  most  lively  anguish.  The  body 
was  placed,  moreover,  in  an  unnatural  position,  the  arms  being 
stretched  back,  in  order  to  be  nailed  to  the  cross  piece  above, 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  produce  an  oppressive  feeling  of  un- 
easiness and  constraint  through  the  whole  breast,  which  be- 
came, in  a  short  time,  an  occasion  of  indescribable  misery. 
This  position,  of  course,  could  not  be  altered  in  the  smallest 
degree,  and  the  least  movement  which  the  sufferer  might  be 
led  to  make,  must  have  served  only  to  provoke  new  torture 
from  every  wound.  The  cross,  therefore,  was  full  of  cruelty 
as  well  as  of  shame,  and  might  well  be  dreaded.  But  are  we 
to  suppose  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  could  not  endure  it? 
horrors  with  as  much  ease  as  many  of  his  followers,  through 
the  assistance  of  his  grace,  have  been  able  to  endure  the  same 
or  similar  anguish  of  body  in  their  deaths  ?  Whence,  then, 
that  extreme  anxiety  and  dismay  with  which  he  was  filled  in 
view  of  his  last  sufferings  ?  Whence  that  awful  distress  that 
overwhelmed  him  on  the  cross?  What  was  the  cup,  the 
thought  of  which  produced  such  agony  in  the  garden  of  Geth- 
gemane,  when  he  prayed  that,  if  possible,  it  might  pass  from 
him,  and  his  sweat  was  as  it  were  great  drops  of  blood  falling 
down  to  the  gnuim!  ''  What  was  the  cup  which,  while  bo 
was  drinking  it,  wrung  from  his  bosom  that  piercing  cry  of 
Borrow  :  "  My  God  !  my  God  !  why  hast  thou  forsaken  ine  ?" 
Ah,  the  terrors  of  the  cross  were  but  a  feeble  representation 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

of  the  horror  that  compassed  his  soul  from  another  «juart«r 
There  was  wrath  laid  upon  him  by  a  righteous  God,  fur  the 
guilt  of  sin.  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise  him,  and  to  put 
him  to  grief,  and  to  make  his  soul  an  offering  for  sin,  because 
the  great  work  of  redemption  which  he  had  undertaken  re- 
quired it.  He  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin, 
and  laid  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all ;  therefore,  he  was 
in>unded  for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised  for  our  ini- 
quities, the  chdxtisrmi'ix  of  our  peace  was  upon  him,  and  with 
his  stripes  we  are  healed.  (Isa.  liii.  4 — 11,  2  Cor.  v.  21, 
Heb.  ix.  28,  x.  4—13,  1  Pet.  ii.  22— 24.) 

Having  considered  what  it  was  literally  to  four  the  cros*, 
we  may  without  much  difficulty  understand  what  it  signifies 
figuratively.  It  can  mean  nothing  less  than  to  be  ready  to 
undergo  the  severest  hardship,  to  face  the  most  formidable 
danger,  and  to  lay  down  even  life  itself,  if  the  sacrifice  should 
be  required.  Such  a  cross-bearer  every  follower  of  Christ  is 
commanded  to  be.  (Matt.  x.  38,  xvi.  24.)  And  he  may  not 
dream  that  his  faithfulness  will  not  actually  be  brought  into 
trial.  The  way  to  heaven  is  through  much  self-denial,  labour, 
and  tribulation. 


SECTION   VI. 
OF  MILITARY  AFFAIRS. 

AMONG  the  Israelites,  armies  were  made  up  altogether  of 
what  we  call  the  militia  of  a  country.  A  general  enrolment 
was  made  of  all  that  were  able  to  </n  forth  to  irar,  from  twenty 
years  old  and  upward.  (Num.  i.  2,  3,  xxvi.  2.)  Out  of  tins 
whole  number,  in  case  of  war,  as  many  were  called  into  actual 
service  as  the  occasion  appeared  to  demand.  All,  however, 
held  themselves  ready  to  assemble  on  the  shortest  notice  ;  and 
if  the  occasion  was  extraordinary,  the  whole  body  might  be 
summoned  to  meet  in  one  vast  army  at  once.  (Judg.  xx.  1 — 
11  1  Sam.  xi.  7.)  In  common  cases,  only  a  small  part  wa* 
chosen.  (Ex.  xvii.  9,  10,  Num.  xxxi.  4,  5,  Josh.  vii.  3,  4.) 
When  we  consider  the  way  in  which  soldiers  were  raised,  we 
need  not  be  surprised  at  the  accounts  that  are  contained  in 
the  Bible,  of  uncommonly  large  armies  being  formed  in  a  very 
*hort  time.  In  the  time  of  the  kings,  especially,  such  vast 
armies  were  frequently  gathered  for  the  field.  They  some- 
times consisted  of  several  hundred  thousand  men.  It  was  the 
more  easy  for  the  government  to  call  out  hosts  of  this  s<  rt,  be- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  221 

jause,  in  ancient  times,  soldiers  did  not  receive  any  wages  ; 
liiey  were  supported  at  their  own  expense,  or  by  their  parents. 
(Judg.  xx.  10,  1  Sam.  xvii.  17 — 20.)  Every  man  had  to  find 
likewise  his  own  arms.  This  plan  of  making  soldiers  provide 
for  themselves  tended  to  make  wars  in  those  days  generally  of 
short  continuance.  Long  campaigns,  such  as  are  now  com- 
mon, in  which  whole  seasons  are  sometimes  passed  away  in 
marches  and  mano3uvres,  without  much  actual  fighting,  could 
not  be  sustained,  when  each  soldier  had  either  to  carry  his 
provisions  along  with  him  for  the  whole  term,  or  to  have  them 
sent  all  the  while  from  home.  Hence,  when  armies  were  col- 
lected, they  commonly  came  as  soon  as  possible  to  battle,  and 
so  in  most  cases  decided  the  war  with  a  single  stroke.  Valour, 
indeed,  waa  sometimes  encouraged  with  the  offer  of  reward ; 
but  only  in  special  instances,  and  never  to  any  general  extent. 
(Josh.  xv.  16,  1  Sam.  xvii.  25,  2  Sam.  xviii.  11.)  In  time, 
however,  the  practice  of  making  public  provision  for  the  wants 
of  soldiers  and  of  allowing  them  some  pay,  began  to  grow 
gradually  into  use.  In  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  military 
service  was  rewarded  with  regular  wages.  Accordingly,  we  find 
in  the  New  Testament,  which  belongs  to  a  later  period,  mention 
made  of  wages  of  this  sort.  (Luke  iii.  14,  1  Cor.  ix.  7.) 

When  the  army  was  made  up,  and  ready  to  proceed  to  bat- 
tie,  a  proclamation  was  made,  releasing  certain  classes  of  men 
entirely  from  the  duty  of  service,  and  allowing  them  to  return 
home.  (Deut.  xx.  5—8.)  Moreover,  when  a  man  married  a 
wife,  he  was  not  required  to  go  forth  to  war  for  a  whole  year 
afterwards.  (Deut.  xxiv  5.)  At  first,  the  whole  army  was 
always  dismissed,  as  soon  as  the  war  was  over,  and  all  its  sol- 
diers were  converted  at  once  into  quiet  husbandmen.  Under 
the  government  of  the  kings,  however,  it  became  common  to 
have  always  some  soldiers  in  service.  (1  Sam.  xiii.  2.)  Be- 
H'lrs  his  Life-guard,  David  had,  at  all  times,  twenty-four 
thousand  men  employed  in  military  duty.  His  whole  army 
was  divided  into  twelve  bodies  of  so  many  men  each,  and 
every  one  of  them  was  required  to  perform  this  service  in 
course,  a  month  at  a  time.  (1  Chron.  xxvii.  1 — 15.)  The 
practice  of  having  a  standing  force  in  this  way,  led  necessarily 
to  the  making  of  some  provision  for  their  support  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  government;  and  also  for  supplying  them  with 
arms.  (2  Chron.  xi.  12,  xxvi.  14.) 

The  commander-in-chief  of  the  whole  army  was  called  the 
captain  of  the  host.  His  authority  and  importance  were  very 
great.  (2  Kings  iv.  13.)  Both  kings  and  general*  had  armour 


'-'L'2  BIBLICAL    ARTIQIKTIK* 


tncy  were  chosen  out  of  such  as  were  most  valiant  n. 
the  army,  and  were  employed  not  merely  to  carry  the  arms  of 
their  masters,  but  also  to  give  their  commands  to  the  inferior 
captains. 

Before  the  time  of  Solomon,  the  Israelitish  army  was  com- 
posed altogether  of  footmen.  He  multiplied  horses  in  the 
o«  tun  try,  and  from  his  day,  horsemen  and  chariots  were  not 
unknown  in  the  wars  of  the  nation.  (1  Kings  x.  26,  xxii.  35.) 
They  were,  however,  never  so  important  for  military  use  in  the 
land  of  Israel  as  in  most  other  countries;  its  hilly  surface  hin- 
dered them  from  being  of  much  service.  But  on  account  nt' 
their  benefit  to  nations  in  general,  and  the  dependence  which 
it  was  common  to  place  upon  them,  we  find  them  used  figur* 
lively  to  signify  protection  and  defence  of  the  most  effect  ua. 
kind.  (2  Kings  ii.  12,  xiii.  14.)  The  strength  of  war  among 
the  Israelites  was,  in  every  age,  their  infantry.  This  was  made 
up  of  two  general  classes  of  soldiers,  —  such  as  engaged  with 
their  enemies  in  battle  hand  to  hand,  and  such  as  fought 
them  at  a  distance.  The  first  class  were  armed  with  spears, 
swords,  and  shields;  the  second,  with  javelins,  slings,  and 
bows. 

In  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  as  has  been  noticed  already,  a 
considerable  number  of  Roman  soldiers  were  stationed  in  tip- 
country,  to  support  the  authority  of  the  governor.  The  Roman 
armies  were  mighty  in  war,  consisting  of  footmen  and  horsemen 
joined  in  suitable  proportion,  and  distinguished  by  the  most 
complete  discipline.  They  were  divided  into  great  bodies 
called  leffion*,  each"  of  which  was  divided  again  several  times 
into  less  bands  and  companies.  The  proper  number  for  a  legion 
was  six  thousand  men,  though  it  was  not  always  the  same.  In 
common  language,  the  word  was  used  to  signify  any  great 
number,  as  the  words  thousand  and  million  are  with  us.  (Matt. 
xxvi.  53,  Mark  v.  9.) 

The  war-chariot 
was  in  use  at  a 
very  early  period. 
(Ex.  xiv.  6,  7.) 
The  Canaanites 
employed  it  much 
in  their  battles, 
and  among  the 
Eastern  nations 
generally  it  was  in 
DO  small 


EIBMCAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


JZ23 


eion  We  read  that  Judah  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabit* 
ants  of  the  valley,  in  the  territory  assigned  to  that  tribe,  be- 
jause  they  had  chariots  of  iron;  thai  is,  we  may  suppose, 
chariots  which  had  much  iron-work  in  their  structure,  so  as  to 
be  very  strong.  (Judg.  i.  19.)  They  could  act  with  advantage 
jnly  where  the  country  was  somewhat  level.  The  war-cha- 
riot, like  all  others  in  ancient  times,  had  only  two  wheels,  and 
was  drawn  generally  by  two  horses,  though  sometimes  by  three 
or  four,  abreast.  It  carried  two  persons,  a  driver,  who  directed 
its  course  over  the  battle  ground,  and  a  warrior,  who,  standing 
upon  his  feet,  fought  from  it  with  spear  or  bow,  as  it  wheeled 
through  the  tumult  of  death.  Cyrus,  the  great  king  of  Per- 
sia, introduced  ~ 
chariots  of  auch 
size  that  twenty 
men,  it  is  said, 
could  fight  from 
each  of  them. 
But  what  made 
them  still  more 
terrible  was  the 
way  in  which 
they  were  them- 
selves armed. 
On.  both  sides 
of  them  were 
fixed  great  iron 

scythes,  strong  and  sharp,  with  which  they  rushed  at  full  speed 
upon  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  bearing  terror  and  destruction 
wherever  they  came.  Some  have  thought  that  the  iron  cha- 
riots of  the  Canaanites  just  noticed,  were  so  called  on  account 
of  some  such  deadly  contrivance  that  belonged  to  them. — El<-- 
phants  were  used  in  war,  especially  in  later  times,  among 
some  Eastern  nations.  Great  machines,  like  towers,  were 
fixed  upon  their  backs,  from  which  sometimes  as  many  as 
thirty-two  soldiers  fought.  Mention  is  made  of  such  elephants, 
and  also  of  chariots  armed  with  hooks,  or  scythes,  in  the  booki 
of  the  Maccabees. 

Let  us  now  attend  to  the  arms  with  which  the  ancient  sol- 
dier was  equipped  for  the  battle.  Wo  may  divide  them  all  into 
two  general  classes,  as  they  were  designed  either  to  protect  th* 
warrior  himself  or  to  injure  his  enemy;  that  is,  as  they  wero 
either  defensive  or  offensive.  W»  will  notice  such  as  were  of 
the  defensive  sort  first. 


224 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIEg. 


;  — 


The  head  was  guarded  with  a 
It  was  a  strong  cap,  made  of  thic-k  o  ;- 
hide,  and  often  covered  with  bra--;  ; 
sometimes  it  was  made  of  brass  alto- 
gether.  The  practice  of  having  it 
crowned  with  some  ornament  on  toj  , 
such  as  a  horse-tail  crest,  or  some  kind 
of  plume,  was  in  use  among  different 
people  at  an  early  period.  —  The  Brnixt- 
plate  consisted  of  two  parts,  one  of  which 
covered  the  fore  part  of  the  body,  and 
the  other  the  back;  both  being  joined 
together  at  the  sides  by  clasps  or  but- 
tons. It  was  made  sometimes  of  flax  or  cotton  woven  very 
'hick  and  close  ;  at  other  times,  of  some  sort  of  metal,  espe- 
cia'ly  brass.  Some  of  this  last  sort  were  composed  of  scales, 
cither  brazen  or  iron,  laid  one  over  another  like  the  scales  of 
a  fish  Such  was  the  crxif  of  mm'/  which  Goliath  of  Gatb 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


295 


wore.  In  the  English  Bible,  this  piece  of  armour  is  called  gcu« 
rally  a  coat  of  mail,  sometimes  a  habe.rtje.on  and  />ri>/ii,n/iiif. — 
The  feet  and  legs  were  sometimes  protected  with  Greares  of 
boots ;  those  of  Goliath  were  of  brass. — The  Girdle  was  an  im- 
portant article,  as  we  have  already  seen,  in  common  dress;  but 
to  the  soldier  it  was  especially  needful.  In  marching  and  in 
6ghting,  he  wanted  to  have  his  loins  well  girded,  so  as  to  movr 
without  the  smallest  hinderance.  Military  girdles  were  often 
very  beautiful  and  valuable.  Fastened  to  his  left  arm,  the  war- 
rior's Shield,  when  skilfully  managed,  afforded  better  protectinn 
to  his  whole  body,  than  all  the  rest  of  his  armour  together. 
There  were  different  kinds  of  them,  some  large,  and  others 
comparatively  small.  Some  were  large  enough  to  guard  the 
entire  body  at  once;  others  of  less  size  were  passed  with  dex- 
terous movement  from  one  point  to  another,  as  the  eye  gave 
warning  where  the  enemy's  weapon  was  likely  to  strike 
Shields  were  manufactured  sometimes  of  light  wood,  or  ozierh 
woven  together,  with  a  covering  of  tough  bull's  bide,  or,  in 
some  instances,  of  brass;  sometimes  of  a  bull's  hide  alone,  two 
or  three  times  folded  over.  They  were  so  formed  as  to  present 
on  their  front  side,  toward  the  enemy,  a  surface  more  ir  less 
rounding  from  the  centre  to  the  border,  so  as  to  turn  aside 
whatever  struck  them.  To  make  them 
smooth  and  slippery  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, as  well  as  to  keep  them  from  being 
injured  by  the  wet,  it  was  common  to 
anoint  £hem  with  oil.  (Isa.  xxi.  5.) 
Among  all  ancient  nations,  it  was  held 
to  be  a  great  disgrace,  and  so  a  great 
misfortune,  to  lose  the  shield  in  battle. 
God  is  called  a  Shield  and  a  Buckler, 
because  he  affords  the  most  secure  pro- 
tection to  all  who  put  their  trust  in  him; 
with  favour  he  compasses  the  riijhteous 
as  witJi  a  shield.  (Ps.  v.  12,  xviii.  2, 
Ixvii.  9.) 

Offensive  weapons  were  of  two  sorts ; 
such  as  were  used  in  fighting  hand  to 
hand,  and  such  as  were  used  in  fighting 
at  a  distance.  Of  the  first  kind  were 
the  sword  and  the  heavier  kind  of  spear. 
The  Sword  was  short,  in  comparison  with 
ours.  There  appear,  however,  to  have 
btjcii  two  kinds  of  the  weapon,  one  larger  than  the  other;  the 
first  had  ouly  a  single  edge,  the  second  had  an  edge  on  eacL 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITI  KS. 

side,  like  a  dagger.  The  edge  of  a  sword  was  often  called  it* 
mouth,  with  which  it  was  said  to  dri-mir  flesh  and  to  drink 
blood.  The  weapon  was  carried  in  a  sheath  fastened  to  the 
girdle,  so  as  to  hang  upon  the  thigh ;  whence  the  expressioL 
toyinl  on  th<-  MWm,  or  to  make  ready  for  war.  (Ps.  xlv.  3.) 
The  justice  of  God  is  represented  as  being  armed  with  a 
sword,  to  destroy  the  guilty ;  and  sometimes  the  means  which 
he  makes  use  of  to  accomplish  punishment  are  figuratively 
Htyled  his  sword.  (Ps.  xvii.  13,  Isa.  xxxiv.  5 — 8,  Jer. 
xii.  12,  xlvii.  6,  7.)  In  like  manner,  the  Assyrian  is  called 
th-e  rod  of  hi*  anger,  sent  against  a  hypocritical  nation  ;  and 
A\t  Modes  and  Persians,  led  by  the  illustrious  Cyrus,  before 


whom  Babylon's  glory  fell,  are  declared  to  have  been  hig 
b<i/f/c-ajre  and  n-,',i/><i/is  of  war,  employed  to  break  in  pieces 
the  nations,  and  to  destroy  kingdoms.  (Isa.  x.  5 — 15,  Jer. 
li.  20 — 24.)  The  Spear  was  a  long  wooden  staff  with  an  iron 
ooint. — For  fighting  at  a  distance,  javelins,  bows,  and  slingx, 
were  used.  The  Javelin  was  a  spear  of  lighter  make  than 
the  one  used  in  close  fight,  which  was  darted  with  the  hand 
tgainxt  the  enemy.  The  B»nc  and  the  Arrmc  are  of  very 
ancient  origin.  Bows  were  generally  made  of  wood;  some- 
times, however,  of  brass.  They  were  so  strong,  that  it  re- 
quired frequently  the  greatest  foree  to  bend  them  :  hence 
they  made  use  of  the  foot  as  well  as  the  hands  for  thin 
purpose,  treading  <>n  one  end,  and  pn-ssin^  on  the  other  with 
the  left  hand,  under  the  whole  weight  of  the  body,  till  tb« 
•tring  was  brought  to  the  right  point  and  fixed  there  by  the 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


227 


other  Bending  a  bow,  accordingly,  they  used  to  call  trr,n/intf 
it.  Arroirs  were  made  of  reeds,  at  first;  afterwards  of  light 
wood  pointed  with  iron.  The  Quiver  was  hung  upon  tne  back ; 
.-»  that  the  soldier  might  reach  his  hand  over  his  shoulder  and 
draw  out  the  arrows  as  he  wanted  them.  The  Sliity  also  waa 
one  of  the  earliest  weapons  of  war.  Most  wonderful  was  the 
skill  which  was  sometimes  acquired  by  practice,  in  the  use  of  it. 
The  Benjamites  excelled  in  such  skill ;  many  of  them  could 
t'iny  gtcmes  at  an  hair's  breadth  and  not  miss,  and  could  use 
their  left  hand  about  as  well  as  their  right.  (Judg.  xx.  16, 
1  Chr.  xii.  2.) 

Cities  were  generally  surrounded  with  a  wall,  to  protect 
them  from  enemies;  and  sometimes  with  a  double  one.  On 
th<;  top  of  walls,  towers  were  raised,  which  often  rose  to  a  great 
height.  From  these,  stones  and  arrows  were  discharged  upon 
besieging  armies.  Guards  also  were  kept  constantly  stationed 
in  some  of  them,  to  look  out  for  the  approach  of  any  danger, 
and  to  sound  an  alarm  when  it  appeared.  Great  engines  were 
sometimes  placed  in  them  to  hurl  destruction  upon  the  enemy 


Beu^ging  Engine. 

with  more  dreadful  force.  These  were  either  immense  bows, 
which  were  bent  by  means  of  powerful  machinery,  and  shot 
arrows  enormously  large;  or  prodigious  slings,  which  were  put 
in  motion  in  like  ni:mm>r,  and  hurled  great  stones  and  balls 
of  lead.  Engines  of  such  sort.  /f> ///»•//  l,y  cHiun'ny  nun,  to 
thstot  arnnw  and  i/nat  .•.•/o/i/x  irithm,  king  Uzziuh  caused  to  b* 


i2«  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

placed  upon  the  towers  and  bulwarks  of  Jerusalem.  (2  Chron. 
xxvi.  15.)  It  was  common  to  erect  single  high  towers  also  ii. 
other  places  through  the  land,  especially  on  the  borders  of  the 
country,  in  which  military  guards  were  kept.  When  an  arm} 
besieged  a  city,  they  often  dug  a  ditch  around  it,  between 
themselves  and  the  wall,  to  keep  their  own  camp  in  security; 
and  sometimes  another  on  the  outside  of  their  own  camp,  to 
bavc  it  protected  behind  and  beforo.  Then  they  cast  up  a 
Ixink,  or  mound  of  earth,  against  such  parts  of  the  wall  as 
seemed  10  be  least  strong,  which  ran  slanting  upward  from  the 
ditch  so  aa  sometimes  to  equal  the  wall  itself  in  height.  From 

this,  they  shot  with  their  weapona 
into  the  city.  The  Battering-ram, 
too,  was  employed  at  a  very  early 
period.  It  was  a  long,  heavy 
lieam  of  solid  wood,  with  a  head 
of  iron  or  brass  mounted  on  one 
end.  This  was  at  first  borne  on 
the  arms  of  the  soldiers  and 
driven  with  violence  against  the 
wall;  but  afterwards,  it  was  hung 
by  means  of  long  chains,  so  as  to 
be  fairly  balanced  in  the  middle, 
and  thus  made  to  swing  head 
foremost  against  it  with  much 
greater  force.  Where  the  strength 
of  the  walls  and  the  watchful 
skill  of  the  besieged  were  such 
as  to  baffle  all  attempts  to  take 
the  city  by  storm  or  by  stratagem, 
the  more  tedious  way  of  starving 
it  into  a  surrender  was  resorted 
to.  Sieges  of  great  cities  la- ted 
sometimes  in  this  way  a  great 
while;  and  awful  beyond  descrip- 
tion, in  some  cases,  were  the  suf- 
ferings they  occasioned.  (Deut 
xxviii.  52 — 57,  2  Kings  vi 
24—30,  Jer.  xix.  9.) 

The  onset  of  a  battle  was  very 
nlent,  and  was  made  with  a  great  shout.  In  the  ancient  way 
.»'  fighting,  the  qualifications  of  a  good  warrior  were  very  differ 
ti\i  from  what  they  are  now,  since  the  invention  of  gunpowder 
aas  changed  the  whole  manner  of  war.  Personal  activity  and 
rtrength  were  the  n  all-iinporuuit.  Soldier  was  often  called  U/ 


7JIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  229 

,TMP  with  s  >Mier,  in  direct  individual  combat,  in  which  he  must 
destroy  his  antagonist  or  die;  and  when  he  escaped  with  victory 
from  one  such  desperate  trial,  it  was  only  to  engage  in  another 
equally  critical.  Battles  conducted  in  this  way,  it  is  easy  to  per- 
ceive, must  have  been  commonly  very  full  of  blood  and  death. 
Terrible  was  the  slaughter  accomplished  by  war  in  ancient  times, 
and  sad  was  the  desolation  which  the  monster  scattered  abroad 
to  mark  its  fatal  path.  Even  the  tender  mercies  of  victory  were 
cruel.  In  the  treatment  of  its  vanquished  foes,  the  successful 
army  owned  no  restraint  but  its  own  pleasure;  and  it  was  too 
often  hurried  by  the  wrath  excited  in  battle  to  glut  its  ven- 
geance, by  using  its  power  with  the  utmost  rigour.  Fields 
and  houses  and  cattle,  men,  women  and  children,  became,  by 
right  of  war,  the  property  of  the  conquerors.  They  considered 
the  spoils  of  the  conquered  the  proper  reward  of  their  warfare. 
The  soldiers,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  received  no  wages,  felt 
themselves  entitled  to  these  as  the  only  compensation  which 
they  could  expect  for  their  services.  The  hope  of  securing  a 
reward  to  themselves  in  this  way,  was  one  powerful  motive 
that  animated  them  in  their  trials  and  toils;  and  accordingly 
the  division  of  the  spoils  after  battle  was  always  an  occasion 
of  the  most  boisterous  joy,  such  as  rose  from  the  fields  in  the 
time  of  harvest,  or  rung  through  the  hills  when  the  season  of 
vintage  was  come.  (Isa.  ix.  3,  Ezek.  xxix.  18 — 20.)  Often- 
times, captives  of  every  age  and  sex  were  sold  into  bondage; 
and  not  unfrequently  the  most  brutal  outrage  and  violence  were 
employed  in  their  destruction,  without  Ihe  smallest  compassion 
(2  Kings  viii.  12,  Isa.  xiii.  16 — 18,  Zech.  xiv.  2.)  When  the 
wrath  of  the  conqueror  had  been  provoked  in  more  than  a  com- 
mon measure,  he  passed  like  an  overflowing  flood  through  the 
land,  reducing  it  to  waste  and  barrenness  the  most  deplorable. 
Whole  nations  were  sometimes  carried  away  out  of  their  own 
countries,  and  settled  in  others  far  remote,  that  they  might  be 
the  more  effectually  subdued  into  complete  obedience.  Thus 
Israel  and  Judah  were  carried  off  into  distant  regions,  and 
other  people  were  brought  from  different  countries  to  occupy 
the  desolate  cities  of  Samaria.  (2  Kings  xvii.  6,  23,  24,  xxiv. 
14 — 16.)  In  some  instances,  however,  more  humanity  wan 
exorcised,  and  conquered  countries  were  allowed  to  remain 
under  the  government  of  their  own  kings,  on  condition  of  pay 
ing  tribute,  and  thus  continuing  to  acknowledge  their  subjec- 
tion from  year  to  year.  But  if  such  rebelled,  they  were  pun- 
ished with  dreadful  severity  if  again  overcome. 

Such  was  the  character  of  war  among  ancient  nations  it 
general.     The  Israelites,  however,  had  much  more  him  unity 


iiiO  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

;n  their  common  manner  of  warfare,  than  was  exercised  by 
r.ther  people  :  and  if  much  of  their  conduct,  in  this  respect, 
seems  after  all  to  be  marked  with  cruel  severity,  when  tried 
by  the  principles  of  later  times,  we  are  to  recollect,  that  in  th« 
mutter  of  war  a  nation's  behaviour  must  necessarily  be  regu 
lated,  to  some  considerable  extent,  by  the  general  usage  and 
spirit  of  the  age  to  which  it  belongs.  For  its  own  security,  it 
must  employ  with  its  enemies,  measures  in  some  degree  of  the 
same  nature  with  those  which  other  governments  adopt.  We 
are  to  bear  in  mind  too,  that  in  the  case  of  some  of  their  wars, 
the  Israelites  acted  under  the  express  direction  of  God.  Thim 
they  were  commanded  to  destroy  the  Canaanitcs  without 
mercy,  because  the  measure  of  their  iniquity  was  full.  God 
hud  a  most  perfect  right  to  give  such  a  command,  and  they,  in 
the  execution  of  it,  discharged  a  solemn  religious  duty.  To 
find  fault  with  them  for  this,  would  be  as  if  one  should  quarrel 
with  the  storm,  or  charge  the  lightning  with  injustice,  when 
they  fulfil  in  terror  the  judgments  of  the  Almighty. 

When  the  consequences  of  being  overcome  in  war  were  so 
dreadful  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  no  wonder  that  great  consterna- 
tion and  grief  were  felt  by  a  conquered  people.  They  often 
betook  themselves  to  flight,  willing  to  forsake  every  thing  for 
preservation  from  the  cruelty  of  their  enemies.  Not  unfre- 
quently  they  fled  to  the  tops  of  the  mountains,  and  lonely 
caves  and  wild  rocks  became  their  places  of  refuge  from  the 
overflowing  scourge.  Great,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  re- 
joicing which  the  news  of  victory  spread  through  a  nation. 
Among  the  Jews,  the  conquerors  were  received,  as  they  re- 
turned home,  with  the  most  unbounded  gladness.  The  people 
came  out  to  meet  them  from  different  cities,  with  songs  of  con- 
gratulation and  praise.  Bands  of  women  especially  went  forth 
in  this  way,  with  instruments  of  music  in  their  hands,  and 
welcomed  their  approach  with  dancing  and  singing.  Thus, 
"  the  women  came  out  of  all  the  cities  of  Israel,  singing  and 
dancing  to  meet  king  Saul,  with  tabrets,  with  joy,  and  with 
instruments  of  music."  (1  Sam.  xviii.  6,  7,  2  Chrou.  xx.  27, 
28.) 

The  image  of  a  battle,  or  continual  warfare,  is  employed  in 
the  Scriptures,  to  set  forth  the  difficulty  of  the  Christian  life 
in  this  present  evil  world;  and  the  Christian  himself  is  repre- 
sented to  be  a  soldier,  whose  safety  requires  him  to  be  at  all 
times  clad  in  complete  armour,  and  to  abound  in  watchfulness 
and  labour  to  the  end.  The  enemies  to  be  opposed  and  over- 
come are  terrible  in  strength.  "  We  wrestle  not,"  says  Paul, 
"  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against  principalities,  against 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  281 

powers,  against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  against 
spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places.  Wherefore  take  unto  you 
the  whole  armour  of  God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  withstand  in 
the  evil  day,  and  having  done  all,  to  stand.  Stand  therefore, 
having  your  loins  girt  about  with  truth,  and  having  on  the 
breastplate  of  righteousness ;  and  your  feet  shod  with  the  pre- 
peration  of  the  gospel  of  peace  ;  above  all,  taking  the  shield  of 
faith,  wherewith  ye  shall  be  able  to  quench  all  the  fiery  dart? 
of  the  wicked.  And  take  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God  :  Praying  always 
with  all  prayer  and  supplication  in  the  Spirit,  and  watching 
thereunto  with  all  perseverance."  (Eph.  vi.  10 — 18.)  This 
fight  the  apostle  calls,  in  another  place,  "  the  good  fight  of 
faith."  (1  Tim.  vi.  12.)  The  man  that  endureth  to  the  end 
obtains  the  victory,  and  for  his  reward  receives  a  crown  of  life. 
It  is  only  "  to  him  that  overcometh,"  that  the  blessedness  of 
heaven  is  promised.  (Rev.  ii.  7,  17,  26 — 28,  iii.  5,  12,  21.) 
What  holy  joy  the  aged  Paul  felt,  when  he  found  himself,  after 
all  the  dangers,  and  toils,  and  discouragements,  and  suffering-) 
of  this  great  fight,  able  to  shout  toward  its  close,  "  Victory  I 
victory !"  (2  Tim.  iv.  7,  8.)  This  victory  is  won,  through 
the  helping  grace  of  God,  by  means  of  faith,  and  without  this 
it  is  not  possible.  (1  John  v.  4,  5.) 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  Christian  life  is  represented 
under  the  image  of  a  laborious  race,  such  as  was  common  in 
the  ancient  Grecian  games.  The  Holy  Ghost  has  made  use 
of  the  most  significant  thiiiys,  as  well  as  the  most  forcible  words, 
to  teach  us  th«  greatness  and  difficulty  of  the  work  to  which 
religion  calls  us,  and  to  stii  us  up  to  earnest  concern  and  un- 
tiring continual  diligence  in  its  pursuit.  (Matt.  vii.  13,  14, 
22,  x.  37,  39,  xi.  12,  xiii.  44—46,  xx.  16,  xx-'v.  42—44, 
Luke  xiii.  23—30,  xiv.  25 — 33,  Acts  xiv.  22,  1  Cor.  ix.  24 
—27,  Phil.  ii.  12,  iii.  7—17,  Heb.  iii.  12—14,  iv.  1,  11— 
\'->,  vi.  12,  xii.  1 — 3,  1  Pet.  iv.  18.)  How  strange,  that  men, 
with  the  Bible  in  their  hands,  should  so  generally  feel  as  if 
religion  did  not  need  uncommon  interest  or  uncommon  exer- 
tion !  Multitudes,  who  call  themselves  Christians,  are  pax-ing 
onward  through  life  hardly  conscious  of  any  struggle  or  trial 
of  a  religious  sort  whatever,  and  yet  they  dream  that  they  are 
on  the  way  to  heaven.  If  you  talk  to  them  of  spiritual  dis- 
couragements, anxieties,  toils,  and  conflicts,  they  know  not 
what  you  mean,  or  perhaps  regard  all  suck  language  as  the 
sickly  cant  of  fanaticism  or  gloomy  superstition.  They  show 
far  more  coiiivrn  about  the  affairs  of  this  world,  than  about  all 
'.he  iijiniitrlv  interesting  realities  of  thut  which  is  to  come,  and 


<!32  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

seldom  allow  these  last  to  engage  their  thoughts  or  their  con- 
versation ;  yet  they  pretend  to  be  followers  of  them  who  throuyh 
f(titk  and  pat  it-net:  have  gone  to  inherit  the  promises.  But 
»et  us  beware  of  such  delusioi. .  The  devil  would  like  to  per 
made  us,  that  the  road  to  heaven  requires  no  great  care  or  ef- 
fort to  be  found  and  travelled  ;  but  Christ  has  assured  us,  that 
it  is  difficult  and  narrow,  and  that  few  find  it.  The  devil  will 
whisper  to  the  soul,  that  there  is  no  need  to  be  continually 
watching  and  striving  in  order  to  secure  eternal  life ;  but  the 
Bible  warns  us  to  work  out  our  salvation  with  fear  and  trnn- 
iillnij.  The  redemption  of  the  soul  is  precious.  The  ruin  out 
of  which  it  is  to  be  raised  is  most  awful.  All  Heaven  is  moved 
with  interest  for  its  salvation.  The  Son  of  God  has  laid  down 
his  life  a  ransom  for  it.  And  shall  we  dream  of  having 
lifted  such  a  height  from  corruption  to  holiness,  with  no  cor- 
responding interest  or  exertion  on  its  own  part  ?  No  :  religion 
claims,  and  certainly  deserves,  our  highest  regard  and  most  se- 
rious labour.  It  sets  before  us  a  RACE  ;  and  we  must  run, 
laying  aside  every  weight  and  casting  off  every  hinderance,  if 
we  would  win  its  prize.  It  sets  before  us  a  BATTLE  ;  and  we 
must  fight,  arrayed  in  all  the  armour  of  righteousness,  and  re 
misting  evil  within  and  without,  on  to  the  close  of  life,  if  we 
would  secure  its  victory  and  be  crowned  with  immortal  glory. 
By  grace  we  are  saved,  it  is  true,  through  faith,  but  this  gift 
of  God  is  not  obtained  without  hearty  desire  and  endeavour  on 
the  sinner's  part;  and  then,  faith  must  lead  to  earnest  and 
diligent  labour  in  the  work  of  purifying  the  heart  and  over- 
coming the  world — or  else  it  will  be  but  a  dead  faith,  van-,  uid 
unprofitable. 


BIBLICAL  ANTIQUITIES. 


PART  II. 


PART   II. 

CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL    HISTORY  OF   RELIGION. 

OUR  first  parents,  before  the  Fall,  were  altogether  holy 
The  law  of  God  was  written  upon  their  hearts,  and,  while  they 
delighted  in  it  as  perfectly  good,  they  obeyed  it  in  all  its  length 
and  breadth.  Their  religion  was,  in  its  nature,  the  same  with 
that  of  Heaven.  According  to  the  universal  and  perpetual 
order  of  the  Divine  Government,  they  were  entitled,  on  account 
of  their  own  righteousness  of  character  and  conduct,  to  the 
favour  of  their  Maker,  which  is  happiness  and  life.  They 
were  not,  however,  placed  out  of  the  reach  of  evil.  They  had 
a  trial  of  their  faithfulness  to  stand,  before  their  moral  state 
should  be  rendered  eternally  secure.  In  that  trial  they  failed. 
The  commandment  of  God,  through  the  temptation  of  the 
devil,  was  wilfully  transgressed.  Thus,  "by  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin ;  and  so  death  passed 
upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned."  (Rom.  v.  12.) 

The  ruin  was  awful.  The  greatest  calamity  in  the  wide 
universe  of  God,  is  gin.  The  human  race  was  now  brought 
into  that  condition  which  is  the  most  deplorable  that  any  mind 
can  conceive.  Struck  out  from  the  order  and  happiness  of  the 
general  creation,  and  cut  off  from  all  intercourse  with  God,  it 
presented  only  a  spectacle  of  horror  and  terrific  desolation, 
uncheered  by  the  smallest  gleam  of  hope.  The  state  of  mai 
was  the  same  with  that  into  which  a  part  of  the  angels  had 
fallen;  a  state  of  rebellion  against  the  Almighty,  of  exclusion 
from  peace,  a  state  of  infinite  wrath,  of  death  without  hope  and 
without  end. 

But  God  had  mercy.  When  no  arm  but  his  own  could  save, 
ne  determined  to  help.  He  left  the  angels  to  perish  without 
relief,  but  stretched  forth  his  hand  to  rescue  sinking  man. 
(Heb.  ii.  16.)  A  great  Salvation  was  provided.  'A  wonder 


£r»fl  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ful  arrangfmcnt  bad  been,  frjin  tbe  beginning,  made  in  heaven^ 
to  recover  the  lost.  The  eternal  Son  of  God  engaged  to  be- 
come a  sacrifice  for  their  guilt,  and  the  Father  consented  to 
mvive  once  more  into  favour,  and,  by  hi>  Spirit,  to  restore  to 
holiness,  as  many  as  should  be  willing  to  accept  the  atonement 
thus  wonderfully  secured.  And  because  the  nature  of  man's 
depravity  was  such,  that  not  one  of  all  the  race  would  ever  be 
naturally  willing  to  embrace  the  offer  of  mercy,  even  after  such 
condescension  and  love  on  the  part  of  God,  the  arrangement 
of  Divine  compassion  extended  yet  farther.  It  was  determined 
that,  in  consideration  of  the  Saviour's  work,  the  Holy  Spirit 
should  be  sent  forth  into  the  hearts  of  men,  to  enlighten  and 
persuade  them,  to  the  end  that  they  might  become  willing  to 
be  saved ;  that  thus,  as  the  prophet  declares,  the  Redeemer 
should  "  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  be  satisfied,"  (Isa. 
liii.  11;)  and  that,  out  of  tbe  multitude  of  Adam's  fallen 
children,  a  portion  should  yet  gloriously  rise  from  ruin  and 
find  a  happy  restoration  to  the  great  family  of  God.  Hero 
originated  the  Church. 

The  church  is  a  society  made  up  of  the  Redeemer's  people. 
In  its  visible  character,  as  a  body  regularly  organized  in  thin 
world,  it  comprehends  all  who,  in  any  age,  profess  to  be  hi* 
people,  and  externally  are  placed  under  that  constitution  which 
he  has  appointed  for  their  government  and  improvement.  In 
its  invisible  character, — that  is,  as  it  appears  to  the  eye  of  God, 
who  searcheth  the  heart, — it  embraces  only  thos"  who  are 
really  and  truly  the  people  of  Christ,  redeemed  by  his  blood, 
*nd  made  meet  by  his  grace  "to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  light."  Many  belong  to  the  church  as  an  out- 
ward body  on  earth,  who  have  no  part  in  its  glorious  reality, 
as  a  body  spiritually  united  to  its  3reat  Head.  The  institution 
of  the  church  had  respect,  no  do»  .ot,  only  to  those  who  become 
truly  thus  united  to  Christ;  its  object  was,  by  means  of  the 
truth  of  God,  (which  it  was  appointed  to  preserve  from  age  to 
age,  and  to  employ  instrumentally  for  the  salvation  of  men,) 
to  bring  out  from  the  darkness  of  the  world,  as  many  as  might 
be  moved  to  comply  with  the  Divine  invitation  in  deed  and  in 
truth,  and  so,  by  salutary  preparation  and  discipline,  to  guthei 
their  whole  number,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time, 
into  one  great  family  in  heaven.  But,  in  its  actual  outward 
form  and  history,  in  this  world,  all  are  regarded  as  being  inte- 
rested in  its  existence,  who  participate  in  its  external  privileges, 
whether  truly  pious  or  not;  because  man  cannot  try  the  heart, 
and  God  unfolds  not  his  judgment  of  its  character  before  the 
Great  Day. 


B1PLICAL    AN1    QUITIE8.  ?S7 

In  consequence  of  the  Redeemer's  undertaking,  our  race  wa.s, 
in  mediately  after  the  Fall,  placed  in  new  circumstances.    Thej 
rtviv  fallen  still,  but  a  way  of  recovery  was  thrown  open.     The 
wrath  of  the  Almighty  still  hung  suspended  over  their  heads 
with  tremendous  terror;  but  for  a  little  time  its  destruction 
was  delayed;  the  full  bursting  forth  of  its  fury  was  restrained; 
and  in  that  awful  pause  room  was  left  for  complete  escape ;  a 
HKFUOE  was  provided  within  reach,  strong  and  secure,  to  which 
the  criminal  might  run  and  be  eternally  safe.     Thus,  in  the 
mi'lst  of  earth's  moral  desolation,  there  was  to  be  displayed, 
down  to  the  end  of  time,  a  spectacle  of  returning  life.     Heaven 
was  to  receive,  with  universal  rapture,  millions  from  the  very 
jaws  of  hell.     The  accomplishment  of  this  mercy  was  to  be, 
however,  only  through  the  mediation  and  suffering  of  the  Son 
of  God.     The  Holy  One  of  Heaven  could  deal  no  longer  with 
men  directly,  save  as  their  judge  and  destroyer.     From  the 
time  of  the  Fall,  therefore,  no  communication  of  friendship 
could  exist  between  God  and  man,  except  throuyh  Christ.     For 
his  sake,  the  Infinite  Judge  forbears  for  a  while  the  full  execu- 
tinii  of  death,  and  to  him  is  committed,  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
the  care  of  our  fallen  world.     The  Father  has  withdrawn  him- 
self from  immediate  concern  with  it,  such  as  he  employs  in  his 
general  government.      It  has  been  given  over  into  the  bands 
of  the  Son,  in  view  of  his  mediatorial  work.      He  has  been  con- 
stituted Head  over  nil  thiiujs  to  tin-  cluin  h.   (Kph.  i.  22.)      He 
has  undertaken,  and  it  has  been   left  to  him,  to  maintain   the 
full  honour  of  God's  law  in  the  case  of  the  human  family,  while 
yet  redemption  from  its  curse  should  be  made  possible  for  all, 
a:id  multitudes  should   actually  obtain  the    ielivcnmce.      He 
g  iverus  the  world,  therefore,  with  continual  regard  to  the  church, 
which  he  has  determined  to  gather  out  of  its  ruins,  ami  conduct 
to  glory.     All  the  kindness  which  the  world  experiences  m>w 
fr  mi  God,  comes  through  hi  HI,  and  is  only  in  consequence  of 
ih  it  new  position  in  which  it  is  placed  before  God,  by  his 
mi  diatorial    undertaking.     And    because    the   world    is   thus 
given  into  his  hands,  with  the  trust  of  completely  vindicating 
the  holiness  of  the  Divine  law,  its  final  judgment  •will  also 
proceed  from  his  authority.     "The  Father  judgcth  no  man, 
but  hath  -  committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son.      He  hath 
given  him  authority  to  execute  judgment,  because  he  is  the 
SON  OF  MAN."  (John  v.  21 — 29,  Acts  xvii.  31.)     As  many 
is  refuse  to  embrace  his  n»orcy,  he  will  himself  sentence  to 
:lio  everlasting  death,  which  sin  deserves,  and  Gcil's  righteous 
law  demands.     Thus  he  will  reduce  all  thimjs  to  order,  by 
or  by  justice",  and  wind  up,  as  it  were,  in   unalterably 


238  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

jnd  perfect  arrangement,  t,;e  affairs  of  this  apostate  part  of 
creation.  "Then  comet h  the  end,  when  he  shall  have  deli- 
vered up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father;  when  he  shall 
have  put  down  all  rule,  and  all  authority  and  power:  for  he 
must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet.  And 
when  all  things  shall  be  subdued  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son 
ilso  himself  be  subject  unto  him  that  put  all  things  under  him, 
that  <i<Hl  may  be  all  in  all."  (1  Cor.  xv.  24—28.)  Thus  will 
be  accomplished  that  restitution  nf  nil  t/tin</s,  foretold  by  all 
tho  prophets.  (Acts  iii.  21.)  Then,  having  put  an  end  to 
disorder,  and  brought  all  opposition  into  subjection  to  God, 
Uie  Redeemer.  God  and  man  in  one  person,  shall  reign  in  the 
'_rlory  of  his  kingdom,  as  Head  of  the  church,  under  the  gene- 
ral government  of  Him  who  is  all  in  all,  without  interrup- 
tion and  without  end.  For  it  is  written,  "  He  shall  reign  over 
the  house  of  Jacob  for  ever,  and  of  his  kingdom  there  shall 
be  no  end."  And  again,  "  Unto  the  Son  he  saith,  thy  throne, 
O  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever."  (Luke  i.  33,  Heb.  i.  8.) 

The  church,  then,  though  it  has  been  all  along  despised  by 
the  great  body  of  our  race,  has  ever  been  infinitely  the  most 
interesting  and  important  institution  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  proceeding  under  his  own  direction 
and  government  to  that  great  end  of  victory  and  glory,  which 
it  is  ordained  to  reach.  The  world  derives  all  its  mercies  from 
heaven,  through  its  relation  to  this  kingdom,  established  in 
the  midst  of  its  ruin.  And  because  the  government  of  the 
world  is  upon  the  shoulders  of  Zion's  King,  all  the  changes 
that  take  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  which  are  di- 
rected by  his  providence,  are  made  to  help  forward  the  inte- 
rests of  this  same  kingdom.  The  world  is  ruled  for  the  church. 
The  mighty  ones  of  earth  little  drum  of  the  designs  which 
God  has  in  view  to  accomplish,  by  all  the  revolutions  and 
schemes,  which,  from  age  to  age,  occupy  their  thoughts  and 
call  forth  their  labours.  Their  imaginations  are  directed  to 
ends  of  mere  temporal  advantage  to  themselves,  or  their  par- 
ticular countries;  but  God  employs  their  work  to  bring  about 
far  other  ends,  such  as  the  prosperity  of  His  own  kingdom  re- 
quires. Thus,  ambition,  and  pride,  and  every  unhallowed  pas- 
sion, which  fill  the  world  with  war  and  change,  are  all  made 
subservient  to  the  will  of  Christ,  and  conspire  to  promote  hi» 
glorious  plan  of  mercy  to  the  church.  (Isa.  x.  5 — 7.)  In  the 
vast  machinery  of  this  world's  action,  unnumbered  wheels  are 
constantly  at  work;  and  though,  to  human  sight,  many  of 
them  seem  to  be  acting  for  particular  separate  purposes,  the 
eye  of  God,  whose  wisdom  has  united  the  universal  frame,  be 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  239 

holds  all  its  parts  contributing  their  ultimate  influence  to  the 
•viinr  point,  and  combining  their  multiplied  movements  to  ac- 
complish the  same  grand  result.  That  result  is  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  to  its  victorious  consumma- 
tion. This  will  be  clearly  seen,  when  the  history  of  the  earth 
shall  have  come  to  its  close.  It  may,  however,  be  even  now 
discovered  with  striking  certainty,  in  looking  back  upon  the 
history  of  ages  that  are  past  When  we  read  the  record  of 
what  has  been  done  among  the  nations,  in  different  ages  of  tho 
world,  this  great  tn.'h  should  be  kept  at  all  times  in  view. 
History  is  studied  correctly  and  understandingly,  only  when 
this  relation  of  God's  general  providence,  in  all  the  changes 
of  earth,  to  his  will  concerning  the  church,  is  seriously  and 
attentively  regarded.  Here  we  find  a  reason  and  a  meaning, 
an  order  and  a  connection,  in  the  events  which  it  unfolds,  such 
as  cannot  appear  under  any  other  view. 

From  what  has  been  said  already,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
church  has  been,  and  must  be,  in  every  age,  the  same  body. 
The  kingdom  of  Christ  began  to  be  formed  just  after  the  fall ; 
and  the  same  kingdom  has  been  going  forward  ever  since,  and 
will  go  forward  till  the  end  of  the  world.  The  method  by 
which  fallen  sinners  are  restored  to  the  family  of  God,  baa 
always  been  one  and  the  same.  Men  were  saved  before  the 
coming  of  Christ,  as  well  as  since  that  time,  only  by  his  death. 
"  There  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men, 
whereby  we  must  be  saved,"  but  the  name  of  Jesus.  (Acts  iv. 
12.)  True,  the  saints  who  lived  before  he  came  into  the  world, 
could  not  have  any  clear  knowledge  of  the  precise  way  in  which 
atonement  was  to  be  made  for  sin  ;  but  they  knew  and  believed 
that  God  had  devised  and  was  about  to  execute  a  plan  which 
should  fully  answer  the  purpose,  and  make  it  possible  for  him 
to  be  just,  while  he  yet  justified  the  sinner  who  embraced  his 
offered  mercy.  They  knew,  for  it  was  clearly  promised,  that 
a  Divine  Deliverer,  able  to  satisfy  God's  law  and  to  save  men, 
would  in  the  latter  days  appear  on  earth,  to  take  away  sin  and 
to  bring  in  an  everlasting  righteousness  for  as  many  as  would 
trust  in  his  name  Boing  assured  of  this  by  the  testimony  of 
God,  they  believed  it,  renounced  all  hope  of  being  justified 
with  God  by  their  own  goodness,  and  fixed  their  whole  expec- 
tation and  trust  upon  the  Great  Salvation  which  was  to  bo 
made  known  in  latter  times.  Thus  Abraham  and  all  othei 
holy  men  of  old  were  justified  by  faith.  (Rom.  iv.  1 — 8,  Gal 
iii.  G — 8.)  They  "all  died  in  faith,  not  having  receive.l  the 
promises,  but  having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuaded 


*,4J  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

of  them,  and  embraced  them,  and  confessed  that  they  w»:i* 
.-tranirrrs  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth."  (Heb.  xi.  13.) 

Hut,  although  the  church  has  been  substantially  the  same 
in  all  ages,  its  measures  of  spiritual  advantage,  and  its  outward 
constitution,  have  been  greatly  altered  with  the  progress  of 
tiiii'-.  It  lias  had,  as  it  were,  an  infancy,  a  childhood,  and  a 
full  grown  manhood.  (Gal.  iii.  23 — 25,  iv.  1 — 6.)  Its  light 
lias  gradually  proceeded  from  glimmering  feebleness  to  the  tuil 
splendour  of  rising  day.  Compared  with  the  bright  revelation 
of  the  gospel,  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  shed  only  a 
faint  light  upon  the  world.  (2  Tim.  i.  10.)  They  were  a 
light,  which  shined  in  a  dark  place,  until  the  day  should  dawn, 
and  the  day-star  should  arise.  (2  Pet.  i.  19 — 21.)  Still,  how- 
ever, it  was  a  great  and  glorious  light,  sufficient  to  conduct  the 
benighted  sons  of  men  to  heaven.  (Ps.  cxix.  105 — 130.) 

The  first  revelation  of  mercy  through  Christ,  was  made  to 
our  original  parents  just  after  their  fall.  In  the  midst  of  the 
curse,  which  Justice  pronounced,  it  promised  that  the  SEED 
of  the  woman  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head.  (Gen.  iii.  15.) 
This  Seed,  the  same  with  that  in  which  the  great  promise 
made  long  after  to  Abraham,  was  to  be  fulfilled,  was  Christ. 
(Gal.  iii.  16.)  Adam  and  Eve,  we  may  hope,  being  filled 
with  godly  sorrow  for  their  guilt,  believed  the  gracious  word 
of  God,  and  were  saved.  Their  children  were  made  acquainted 
with  the  great  truth,  and  instructed  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.  And  so  down  to  the  flood,  the  knowledge  of  God  and 
of  the  way  of  salvation  by  faith  was  continued  among  men  ; 
and  there  were  all  the  while  some  who  loved  and  obeyed  the 
true  religion.  These  formed  the  church  in  those  days.  There 
was  no  written  Bible,  to  make  known  tlu-  will  of  the  Most 
High.  But  what  God  revealed  to  Adam,  and  others  after  him, 
was  carefully  remembered  and  handed  down  by  word  of  mouth. 
When  men  lived  so  long,  it  was  easy  to  preserve  knowledge  in 
this  way.  Some  holy  men  of  those  times  had  a  very  great  in- 
timacy with  God,  and  received  many  communications  of  in- 
struction and  favour  directly  from  himself.  We  have,  however, 
no  means  of  knowing  very  much  about  the  extent  of  religious 
knowledge,  or  the  manner  of  religious  worship,  which  belonged 
to  that  early  age.  Still,  this  much  we  learn  from  the  Bible : 
—The  solemn  worship  of  sacrifice  was  common  from  the  be- 
ginning; in  which  the  believer  acknowledged  his  guilt  before 
ii»d,  and  looked  forward,  with  holy  trust,  to  the  satisfaction 
which  God  himself  had  promised  to  provide.  The  *<il,l»ith  was 
observed,  and  was  attended,  no  doubt,  with  rich  spiritual  bless- 
ings. There  was  also  a  regular  church,  united  in  the  service 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  241 

of  God,  wliicb  secured  most  important  privileges  of  religious 
education  and  of  social  worship.  Th -iv  \\--.\-  exhortation  too, 
and  preaching,  which  tended  to  e.lit'y  an<l  assist  the  people  of 
God,  while  it  warned,  and  left  without  excuse,  the  ungodly 
around.  (2  Pet.  ii.  5,  Jude  xiv.  15.) 

Abel  was  a  believer,  and  went  to  heaven.  Cain  despised 
religion,  ami  In-longed  to  the  Wicked  One.  (1  John  iii.  12.) 
He  was  driven  out,  for  his  sin,  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord, 
and  became  the  father  of  a  worldly  and  unbelieving  race.  The 
church  was  found  in  the  family  of  Seth,  whom  God  raised  up 
to  take  Abel's  place.  Those  who  belonged  to  it  were  called, 
it  seems,  children  of  God ;  while  the  unbelieving  were  styled, 
c/u'filrcn  of  men.  The  number  of  the  ungodly  was  soon  in- 
creased greatly ;  the  children  of  the  pious  were,  many  of  them, 
seduced  to  join  them.  "The  «*«*  of  God  saw  the  d<nnj /< ///•.< 
rfmen,  that  they  were  fair;  and  they  took  them  wives  of  all 
which  they  chose."  Corruption  thus  rapidly  became  stronger 
and  stronger,  till  it  filled  the  earth,  and  Noah's  family  embraced 
the  wholfi  church.  The  flood  came  with  the  wrath  of  the  Al- 
mighty, and  buried  the  guilty  race  in  destruction. 

This  awful  event  should  have  been  remembered,  to  keep 
men  from  repeating  the  apostasy  which  was  its  occasion.  But 
the  posterity  of  Noah  soon  began  again,  with  an  evil  heart  of 
unbelief,  to  depart  from  the  Lord.  Idolatry  gradually  took 
the  place  of  true  religion.  To  such  extent  did  it  prevail  at 
length,  that  the  very  existence  of  the  church  in  the  world 
seemed  to  be  brought  to  a  termination.  But  in  its  low  estate, 
God  interposed  to  recover  it  to  new  dignity,  and  to  establish 
it  with  better  privileges.  He  selected  Abraham,  the  Chaldean; 
communicated  to  him  the  clear  knowledge  of  religion,  with 
new  and  more  explicit  promises  of  that  Great  Salvation  which 
was  to  be  made  known  in  the  latter  days;  and  set  him  apart, 
with  his  posterity,  to  preserve  the  truth  amid  the  corruptions 
uf  the  world,  and  to  hand  it  down,  without  interruption,  until 
tlie  time  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  line  of  Abraham's  aiu-rstors 
seems  to  have  been  distinguished  for  piety,  from  the  time  of 
Noah,  longer  than  most  other  families;  but  idolatry  had  at 
last  corrupted  it  as  well  as  the  rest.  (Josh.  xxiv.  2.)  Called 
h/  God,  however,  the  patriarch  left  his  country  and  his  friends, 
and  came  into  Canaan.  The  Lord  promised  that  he  would 
give  that  land  to  his  descendants ;  that  they  should  be  his  pe- 
culiar people — his  church  ;  and  that  in  his  Seed  all  the  nation! 
of  the  earth  should  be  blessed.  As  a  seal  of  the  covenant 
into  which  he  and  his  posterity  were  thus  graciously  allowed 
to  enter,  he  received  the  sign  of  circumcision 

M 


242  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

Isaac  and  Jacjb  were  heirs  of  the  same  promises,  .wl  <}«*• 
tinguished  with  like  spiritual  blessiiiiTn.  Their  religion  wo* 
committed  to  their  descendants.  Among  these,  its  form,  and 
something  also  of  its  power,  continued  to  be  known  in  K_!\nt 
till  the  time  of  Moses.  It  appears,  however,  to  have  fallen. 
by  that  time,  into  very  general  neglect.  Many  of  the  Israel- 
ites,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  were  carried  away  with  th« 
idolatries  of  Egypt. 

With  a  mighty  hand  and  an  outstretched  arm,  the  Lord  re- 
<overed  his  people  from  oppression.  He  led  them,  by  the  hand 
of  Moses,  to  the  foot  of  Sinai.  There  he  formed  a  solemn 
covenant  with  the  whole  nation,  and  gave  them  a  written  law. 
The  church  was  now  made  to  assume  a  new  and  more  con-pi- 
cuous  form.  It  was  blessed  with  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the  Di- 
vine Will ;  it  was  admitted  to  greater  privileges ;  and  much 
more  effectual  provision  was  made  for  protec'ing  its  existence, 
and  guarding  its  truth,  in  the  midst  of  an  apo>tute  world.  The 
principles  of  true  morality  and  religion  were  made  clear  to  all, 
by  particular  precepts  of  duty  toward  man  and  toward  <I<><1. 
The  manner  in  which  God  was  to  be  worshipped  was  carefully 
prescribed.  A  great  system  of  rites  and  ceremonies  was  esta- 
blished ;  which,  while  it  served  like  a  hedge  to  secure  the 
proper  form  and  the  continuance  of  the  church,  was,  at  the 
same  time,  so  full  of  important  instruction,  and  so  framed  to 
shadow  forth  spiritual  and  heavenly  truth,  that  to  every  true 
believer  it  could  not  fail  to  be  a  source  of  continual  improve- 
ment in  grace,  and  a  most  valuable  help  to  devotion. 

After  a  long  discipline  in  the  wilderness,  the  chosen  nation 
was  settled  in  Canaan,  with  all  the  advantages  which  thus,  by 
its  new  form,  the  church  was  appointed  to  enjoy.  That  form 
was  intended  to  be  continued  until  the  time  of  the  gospel. 
Age  after  age,  however,  the  measure  of  religious  knowledge, 
with  which  it  was  distinguished,  received  important  increase. 
The  Bible,  whose  first  five  books  had  been  written  by  the  hand 
of  Moses,  was  gradually  enlarged,  by  the  addition  of  others 
equally  inspired.  The  light,  that  was  shining  in  a  dark  world, 
grew  strongei  and  clearer.  Prophecy  multiplied  its  revelations, 
and  by  its  sure  word  pointed  with  more  certainty  and  einph 
to  the  gloiy  that  was  to  come. 

The  Jewish  state  was  very  peculiar.  As  we  have  seen,  wheu 
consideiing  its  manner  of  government,  its  civil  and  religious 
institutions  wore  closely  blended  together,  so  as  to  form  a  sin- 
gle system  harmoniously  conspiring  in  all  its  parts  toward  the 
•aine  general  point.  The  whole  was  designed,  in  the  wist?  plan 
tf  God,  to  preserve  the  true  religion,  aud  prep  ire  the  way  fi» 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  243 

the  introduction  of  the  full  brightness  of  the  gospel  IT  the  ful- 
ness of  time.  The  Jewish  church  was  the  special  object  re- 
garded, in  the  separation  of  the  Israelites  from  the  rest  of  the 
world  to  be  the  peculiar  people  of  the  Most  High ;  and  tLeir 
whole  government,  accordingly,  was  constructed  with  a  view  to 
the  interests  of  the  church,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  fall  iu 
with  and  assist  the  particular  constitution  under  which  it  was 
placed.  Hence,  as  already  remarked,  a  religious  design  is  to 
be  discovered  running,  in  some  measure,  through  the  whole 
system,  and  much  of  the  meaning  of  those  laws  and  institutions 
which  moulded  and  fixed  the  shape  of  the  civil  government,  is 
to  be  sought  in  their  relation  to  religion,  rather  than  in  any 
merely  political  purpose.  Still,  it  is  proper  to  distinguish  the 
nation  as  a  church,  from  the  nation  as  a  civil  community,  and 
to  distribute  its  institutions  and  laws  into  two  general  classes — 
such  as  related  more  directly  to  religion,  and  such  as  had  re- 
gard to  the  government  of  the  state  as  an  earthly  kingdom. 

But  the  laws  which  related  entirely  to  religion  were  not  all 
of  the  same  nature.  As  a  <•/////•/•/»,  the  Jews  were  placed  under 
a  twofold  system  of  law.  They  had  the  Moral  law,  which 
rests  upon  all  men,  in  every  age ;  and  they  had  a  Ceremonial 
law,  peculiar  to  their  dispensation,  and  designed  to  pass  away 
with  it. 

In  discoursing  of  divine  laws,  it  has  been  common  to  divide 
thorn  altogether  into  two  kinds — NATURAL  and  POSITIVE. 
Natural  laws,  which  are  the  same  that  are  usually  called  Moral, 
arc  such  as  arise  necessarily  from  the  character  of  God  and  the 
nature  of  his  moral  creatures,  and  which  every  man's  con- 
science, if  it  be  not  completely  seared  by  sin,  tells  him,  as  soon 
as  they  are  known  to  him  from  the  light  of  nature  or  revela- 
tion, that  he  is  under  solemn  obligation  to  obey.  Positive 
laws  are  such  as  have  no  necessary  and  unalterable  reason  in 
the  nature  of  things,  but  derive  their  authority  from  the  par- 
ticular appointment  of  God,  made  known  by  revelation ;  hav- 
*ng  no  force,  except  where  they  are  thus  expressly  enjoined, 
and  being  designed  to  continue  only  for  a  time,  determined  in 
the  purpose  of  the  Most  High  ,  after  which,  all  their  obliga- 
tion is  done  away.  Each  of  the  ten  commandments  is  a  natu- 
»dl  or  moral  law  :  the  laws  which  required  the  Jews  not  to  eat 
jertain  animals,  the  laws  which  regulated  inheritances  among 
them,  and  others  of  a  like  sort,  were  positive  laws.  A  positive 
law,  when  it  is  enjoined,  is  no  less  binding  than  a  moral  one 
The  uMi^ution  to  obey  rests,  in  both  cases,  upon  the  same  rea. 
aou,  namely,  the  will  of  God :  when  that  will  is  made  known 
in  any  way,  whatever  it  may  require,  the  duty  of  complying 


244  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

with  it  is  at  all  times  the  same,  and  at  all  times  of  the  high 
est  force;  whether  the  requirement  is  perpetual  and  univ.  r-.il 
or  whether  it  is  limited  to  times  and  individuals,  is  an  inquiry 
that  does  not  touch  at  all  upon  the  nature  or  extent  of  its  claim 
to  be  regarded  and  obeyed.  Positive  laws,  again,  have  l»-en 
divided  into  POLITICAL  and  CEREMONIAL.  The  laws  which 
God  gave  for  the  government  of  the  Jewish  republic,  in  its 
civil  character,  were  of  the  first  class;  such  were  the  statutes 
that  were  made  concerning  magistrates  marriages,  inherit- 
ances, punishments,  &c.  :  many  of  them,  a-  already  noticed,  jr.r- 
took  at  the  same  time  of  a  religious  character.  The  law* 
which  among  the  same  people  prescribed  the  peculiar  rites  and 
forms  of  religious  worship,  private  or  public,  were  of  the;  latter 
class — cin  i, iiiiiidl :  such  were  those  that  related  t<>  meats  and 
washings  and  sacrifices,  and  all  the  outward  service  of  the 
tabernacle  or  temple. 

While,  therefore,  the  Moral  law,  and  that  which  has  beer 
styled  the  Ceremonial,  were  alike  altogether  religious  in  their 
character ;  and  so  may  be  with  propriety  classed  together,  in 
distinction  from  the  Political  or  Civil  law;  they  were  distin- 
guished nevertheless  from  each  other  by  a  wide  and  clear  dif- 
ference. The  one  had  its  origin  with  the  beginning  of  crea- 
tion, flowing  necessarily  out  of  its  divine  plan,  and  being  es- 
sential to,  and  inseparable  from,  its  constitution,  as  long  as 
that  constitution  shall  endure:  the  other  had  its  cnniiin ne... 
ineiit  only  when  the  sovereign  wisdom  of  God  revealed  its  ap- 
pointment, and  had  no  necessary  existence  in  the  original 
order  of  being,  but  was  made  to  answer  some  particular  end 
in  the  general  system  of  God's  grace ;  and  having  Moomplished 
this  design,  had  no  longer  any  authority  whatever.  A  moral 
law,  accordingly,  includes  its  reason  in  itself;  and  finds  its. 
end  answered  directly  and  immediately  in  the  obedience  which 
it  receives;  a  ceremonial  one,  on  the  contrary,  had  its  iva-  n 
entirely  out  of  itself,  and  always  contemplated  some  other  end 
than  what  it  directly  required  to  be  done,  as  its  original  and 
principal  design. 

The  MORAL  LAW,  summarily  comprehended  in  the  ten  com- 
mandments uttered  from  Mount  Sinai,  requires  in  all  its  j>r  •- 
cepts  a  spiritual  obedience.  It  contemplates  the  heart.  It 
carries  its  authority  into  all  duties ;  even  such  as  were  cere- 
monial in  their  nature  were  enforced  by  its  power;  because 
when  the  will  of  God  is  understood,  whatever  it  may  prrsenlx  , 

1 Miration  to  regard   it  flow.s  from   the   iir-t    principle  of 

natural   and   unchangeable  reason  ;   namely  that    the   en-atari* 
should  in  every  thing  render  a  willing  obedience  to  its  infinite- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  245 

ly  perfect  Creator.  Thus,  for  an  ancient  Jew  to  eat  swine's 
flesh,  while  it  brought  him  under  the  penalty  of  the  Ceremo- 
nial law,  was  an  offence,  also,  if  wilfully  done,  against  the 
Moral  law,  not  less  truly  than  it  would  have  been  for  him  to 
take  his  Maker's  name  in  vain,  or  to  steal  his  neighbour's  pro- 
perty. Our  Saviour  teaches  us,  that  the  sum  of  all  the  Moral 
law  is  expressed  in  two  great  precepts.  (Matt.  xxii.  37 — 40.) 
Love  to  God  will  secure  natural  obedience  to  all  his  will,  and 
"  love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neighbour ;  therefore  love  is  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law."  (John  xiv.  23,  Rom.  xiii.  8—10.) 
This  law  is  that  which  Paul  speaks  of  as  being  written  in  the 
hearts  of  men.  (Rom.  ii.  15.)  Man  was  originally  made  so  as 
to  have  a  natural  sense  of  its  obligation,  and  a  natural  know- 
ledge of  its  precepts.  And  although,  by  the  fall,  the  clearness 
of  this  knowledge  has  been  much  obscured,  it  has  not  still  been 
utterly  taken  away ;  but  some  vestiges  of  it  are  to  be  found,  in 
every  age,  among  all  people.  (Rom.  i.  19 — 21.)  It  is  still 
only  by  reason  of  sin,  that  men  do  not  all  learn  the  glory  of 
God  from  his  works,  and  are  not  all  moved  by  their  inward 
sense  to  understand  the  Moral  law  and  to  make  it  the  rule  of 
their  conduct. 

This  law,  we  have  said,  never  loses  its  force.  Every  human 
soul  is  at  all  times  under  its  authority.  Nor  will  it  in  any 
case  give  up  the  smallest  part  of  its  claim.  It  requires  full 
obedience,  or  tremendous  punishment,  such  as  falling  upon  a 
creature,  like  man,  must  doom  him  to  everlasting  misery.  The 
law  is  holy,  just  and  good — and  whosoever  offendeth  in  one 
point  is  guilty  of  all — for  it  is  written,  "  Cursed  is  every  one 
that  continueth  not  in  all  things  written  in  the  book  of  the 
law  to  do  them" — and  again,  "Till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one 
jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from. the  law,  till  all  be 
fulfilled."  (Rom.  vii.  12,  James  ii.  10,  Gal.  iii.  10,  Matt.  v. 
18.)  According  to  this  law,  we  are  to  be  judged  in  the  Great 
Day.  Reader !  have  you  not  broken  it  times  without  number? 
How  then  will  you  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of  God  ? 
How  will  you  stand  in  that  awful  trial,  where  a  single  offence 
is  enough  to  condemn  you  for  ever  ?  Can  it  be  that  you  have 
not  yet  begun  to  look  out  for  some  way  of  escape  from  so  fear- 
ful a  prospect? 

The  CEREMONIAL  LAW  of  the  Jews  comprehended  a  vast 
number  of  precepts.  It  stood  in  meats  and  drinks,  and  divers 
washings,  and  carnal  ordinances,  imposed  on  them  till  the 
time  of  reformation.  Some  of  its  institutions  were  appointed 
long  before  the  time  of  Moses.  Such  was  th3  institution  of 

Kurtjicrs,  with  the  regulations  which  governed  the  pious  :i 

21* 


-4ti  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIK*. 

offering  them,  appointed  ii,  the  very  com mencenn  nt  of  I  lie 
church,  immediately  after  the  fall.  Animals  were  divided  into 
c'fUH  and  iiiir/itin  before  the  flood.  (Gen.  vii.  2.)  As  early 
as  the  time  of  Noah,  the  commandment  was  given.  nr>r  to  eat 
b/<j<*f.  Abraham  received  the  appointment  of  <.•//•<•» ///r/xu/«. 
From  his  time,  we  find  in  the  brief  history  of  the  Bible,  trace* 
of  several  other  important  regulations  afterwards  embraced  in 
the  Mosaic  ceremonial  law.  So  that  some  have  imagined,  wt 
should  find,  if  we  had  a  complete  account  of  the  religious 
usages  of  that  early  age,  that  almost  all  the  principal  rites, 
which  their  law  required  the  Jews  to  observe,  existed  to  some 
extent  before,  among  their  pious  ancestors;  or  at  least,  that 
observances  similar  to  them,  and  evidently  having  the  same 
principle  and  intention,  were  not  unknown.  Moses,  by  the 
command  of  God,  formed  for  the  nation  a  full  and  regular 
system  of  ceremonial  laws.  Such  rites  as  had  been  before 
appointed  and  in  use,  he  sanctioned  with  new  authority,  and 
prescribed,  with  particular  care,  the  manner  and  various  cir- 
cumstances which  were  to  be  connected  with  their  observance. 
What  was  partial  and  imperfect  before,  he  set  forth  with  new. 
more  formal  and  systematic,  more  extensive,  and  more  expres- 
sive arrangment.  Various  precepts,  altogether  unknown  till 
that  time,  were  added  to  complete  the  divine  plan.  The  whole, 
thus  framed  together,  made  one  harmonious  scheme,  conspiring 
in  all  its  parts  to  secure  the  great  purpose  of  its  appointment. 
One  use  of  the  ceremonial  law  was  to  keep  the  Jsraelitish 
nation  separate  and  distinct  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  to 
guard  them  from  idolatry.  To  preserve  the  true  religion,  and 
to  prepare  the  way  for  the  coming  of  the  gospel,  God,  in  his 
\vi-dom,  designed  the  Jewish  people  to  be  a  people  tticeKiny 
ttlniir,  amid  the  other  nations  of  the  earth.  (Num.  xxiii.  9.) 
The  whole  system  of  laws,  civil  and  religious,  under  which 
they  were  placed,  was  such  as  was  adapted  to  secure  this  end. 
Their  Ceremonial  law,  especially,  could  not  fail,  if  regarded  in 
any  measure,  to  keep  them  separate.  It  embraced  many  very 
peculiar  precepts,  and  many  that  stood  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  usages  and  manners  of  other  people.  It  could  not  be  com- 
pletely observed  except  in  the  laud  <  t'  Israel;  and  its  operation 
tended  continually  to  shut  out  all  foreign  customs,  and  to  draw 
a  broad  line  of  distinction  between  the  seed  of  Abraham  and 
every  stranger.  Then  was  need  of  such  a  :  ecurity,  to  keep 
the  people  from  becoming  utterly  confounded  with  the  nations 
around  them,  whose  idolatry  they  were,  for  a  long  time,  so 
ready  to  imitate.  The  safety  of  the  church  required  that  it 
should  I*-  burdened  and  shut  up  with  restraint,  in  this  way 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  247 

tlencc,  the  apostle  calls  the  Jewish  law,  a  SchorJmaster,  which, 
by  salutary  but  severe  care  and  discipline,  secured  the  church 
under  proper  training,  as  it  were,  until  the  time  when  the 
gospel  was  introduced.  Its  obligation  imposed  a  sort  of  bond- 
age, such  as  children,  not  yet  of  age,  were  made  to  feel  under 
tutors  and  governors :  which  ceased  only  when  the  fulness  of 
the  Father's  .appointed  time  was  come,  giving  way  to  the 
liberty  of  a  far  more  glorious  dispensation.  (Gal.  iii.  19 — 21, 
iv.  1—11.) 

But  there  was  another,  which  we  are  Jto  regard  as  the  prin- 
cipal design  of  the  Ceremonial  law.  It  was  framed  to  shadow 
forth,  with  figurative  representation,  the  most  important  spi- 
ritual truths;  so  that  by  its  serious  observance,  believers  who 
lived  before  the  time  of  Christ  might  continually  grow  in 
knowledge  and  grace;  and  so  that  it  should  be  afterwards,  to 
the  end  of  time,  a  most  striking  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
gospel ;  by  the  wonderful  prophetic  image  of  gospel  realities 
which  men  might  discover  in  its  whole  sy.-t<  m.  It  was  adapted 
continually  to  remind  the  ancient  Jews  of  the  great  evil  of  sin, 
and  of  the  absolute  need  of  complete  atonement  for  its  guilt, 
before  it  could  be  pardoned.  It  represent •<!  strikingly  the 
infinite  holiness  of  God,  and  the  necessity  of  his  favour.  It 
pointed  to  the  great  Provision,  which  God  intended  to  reveal 
in  its  proper  time,  for  tin;  taking  away  of  sin,  and  directed 
the  eye  of  faith  and  hope  to  the  perfect  salvation  that  was  to 
come.  By  signs,  it  foretold  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ, 
and  the  whole  work  of  redemption  which  he  was  to  accomplish  ; 
and  emblematically  represented  the  great  spiritual  benefits  that 
were  to  be  secured  in  consequence.  Altogether,  it  was  a  grand 
TYPE  of  the  system  of  grace  unfolded  by  the  gospel,  and  its 
several  parts  were,  in  general,  figurative  of  particular  most 
interesting  realities,  comprehended  in  that  system.  Thus  we 
are  told,  the  law  had  a  shadow  of  good  .things  to  come.  (Heb. 
x.  1,  Col.  ii.  17.)  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  the  apostle 
teaches  its  meaning  in  this  way,  in  many  important  particulars. 
Christ  fulfilled  this  law  by  bringing  actually  to  pass  all  that  it 
typically  signified,  as  he  fulfilled  the  moral  law  by  his  life  of 
obedience,  anl  death  of  atonement  for  sinful  men.  (Matt. 
v.  17.) 

We  ought  therefore,  always  to  inquire  after  their  spiritual 
and  typical  meaning,  when  we  read  of  the  various  institutions 
of  this  ancient  law.  We  ought  to  consider  what  refei-ence  they 
liad  to  Christ  and  the  wonders  of  the  gospel.  In  this  way, 
that  part  of  Scripture  which  treats  of  these  things,  is  to  bo 
rendered  most  profitable  for  instruction  in  righteousness.  If 


248  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

it  be  not  read  thus,  it  is  not  read  aright.  We  are  now  able  to 
see  more  clearly,  a  groat  deal,  than  the  ancient  Jew  could,  the 
full  signification  of  the  ceremonial  ordinances  he  wa*-  eonmian  led 
to  observe.  Their  meining  has  been  interpreted  by  e*'ent«. 
Time,  by  unfolding  the  accomplishment  of  the  things  they 
represented,  enables  us  to  understand  types  which  were  once 
dark,  just  as  it  explains  ]>r»j>/«ci'ex  that  were  formerly  as  much 
obscure.  Types  are,  in  fact,  of  the  same  general  nature  with 
prophecies,  only  foretelling  things  to  come  in  a  different  way. 
It  becomes  us,  therefore,  to  study  them  with  the  same  sort  of 
attention,  and  to  seek  like  instruction  and  spiritual  benefit  from 
both.  The  Holy  Ghost  designed  one  as  well  as  the  other  to 
be  so  improved. 

The  history  of  the  Jews,  recorded  briefly  in  the  Bible,  shows 
them  to  have  been  a  rebellious  and  stiff-necked  people  in  reli- 
gion. They  were  ever  ready  to  forsake  the  Lord,  and  fall  in 
with  the  idolatrous  practices  of  the  heathen  around  them.  Yet 
by  the  force  of  their  law,  and  the  oft-repeated  judgments  of  the 
Almighty,  they  were  kept  a  distinct  people.  For  their  sins. 
ihey  were  at  length  carried  away,  however,  into  distant  cap- 
tivity. The  kingdom  of  Israel,  which  had  broken  itself  off 
from  the  house  of  David,  and  offended  God  with  most  dreadful 
apostasy,  was  then  allowed  to  become  lost  among  the  nations. 
The  kingdom  of  Judah  alone  was  regarded  as  the  visible 
chujxjh,  with  which  the  truth  and  promises  of  God  were  to 
n- ni  i in  deposited  till  the  time  of  Christ.  It  embraced  the 
tribt  and  family  from  which  the  Redeemer  was  to  rise.  (Gen. 
xlix  10,  Ps.  cxxxii.  11.)  It  was  enough,  therefore,  to  answer 
the  original  design  of  God  in  separating  the  Jewish  nation, 
that  this  portion  of  it,  with  whom  were  the  promises,  the 
writf  en  law,  and  the  sacred  service  of  religion,  should  be  thence- 
forward preserved  a  separate  people.  Accordingly,  they  were 
so  preserved  in  the  land  of  their  captivity,  and,  after  seventy 
years,  brought  back  again  to  their  ancient  country.  The  tem- 
ple was  once  more  buildcd,  and  the  worship  which  the  law 
prescribed  solemnly  renewed.  Thus  the  nation  .-unl  the  church 
were  continued  till  the  great  Messiah  appeared. 

After  the  captivity,  the  Jews  never  again  showed  any  incli- 
nation to  fall  into  idolatry  Other  sins  of  the  worst  kind  pre- 
vailed greatly,  but  this  chey  held  in  continual  detestation. 
Their  religion  became,  in  the  end,  without  ///•  and  without 
power  almost  entirely;  but  the  letter  and  form  of  it  they 
cherished  with  the  most  scrupulous  care.  No  doubt,  the  af- 
fliction which  the  nation  was  made  to  suffer  by  its  eaptivitv, 
hiid  much  to  do  in  producing  this  change.  T!  is  was  felt  and 


U1BL1CAL    ANTIQUITIES.  249 

vmembered  as  an  awful  warning  not  to  repeat  the  idolatry  of 
former  times,  M  hich  had  ooOttBOOed  it.  Its  whole  history,  t<x), 
from  the  twginning  to  the  end,  by  clearly  fulfilling  many  pro- 
ptiecies,  and  unfolding  many  signal  displays  of  divine  power, 
afforded  a  demonstration  most  convincing,  that  Jehovah  T/as 
the  true  God,  and  that  besides  HIM  there  was  no  other.  More- 
over, after  the  return  from  that  captivity,  new  means  were  em- 
ployed to  secure  the  advantage  of  general  religious  instruction 
This  served  to  keep  alive  the  memory  of  what  was  past,  and 
so  impressed  the  great  truths  of  revelation  upon  the  minds  of 
all,  that  the  evil  and  folly  and  danger  of  idolatry  could  never 
be  forgotten.  Religious  instruction  was  secured,  principally 
by  the  establishment  of  Synagogues  and  Schools.  Synagogues 
were  a  sort  of  churches,  where  the  people  met  by  congregations 
through  the  land  on  every  Sabbath,  to  hear  a  portion  of  the 
Scriptures  read  and  explained,  and  to  join  in  social  prayer  be- 
fore God.  Regular  schools  for  the  instruction  of  the  young, 
under  the  care  of  distinguished  men,  came  also  into  use;  and 
as  this  instruction  was  concerned  chiefly  with  the  knowledge 
of  the  sacred  law,  it  tended  much  to  preserve  it  among  the 
people. 

The  ancient  dispensation,  together  with  all  the  movements 
of  Providence,  in  the  revolutions  of  kingdoms  and  nations  in 
the  world,  looked  forward  to  the  introduction  of  the  gospel,  and 
operated  to  prepare  the  way  for  its  coming.  Since  that  event, 
all  things  have  been  conspiring  toward  another  point — the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  over  the  earth,  and 
the  great  winding  up  of  the  work  of  redemption  which  the 
Son  of  God  has  undertaken,  since  the  fall,  to  accomplish  in 
this  miserable  world.  The  gospel  sheds  light  upon  the  whole 
ancient  testament  of  the  Jews,  and  lifts  the  veil  away  from 
their  wonderful  institutions.  (2  Cor.  Hi.  14 — 18.)  It  ou»lit 
to  be  remembered,  that  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  entire 
Bible  is  JESUS  CHRIST  CRUCIFIED  TO  SAVE  A  LOST  WORLD  j 
and  that  without  this  object  in  view  as  its  grand  end,  the 
whole  Jewish  system  of  religion  can  have  no  meaning. 

As  we  look  ba  -heard  many  hundred  years,  and  find  the  hope 
of  the  church  in  a  redemption  long  since  wrought  out,  so  the 
Jc.w  was  taught  to  stretch  his  expectation  forward  and  to  found 
all  hope  toward  God  upon  that  same  redemption  to  be  revcakd 
at  a  future  time.  What  ice  learn  from  inspired  history,  was 
set  before  him  by  inspired  prophecy  and  types :  in  his  case  in- 
leed,  compared  with  ours,  the  representation  \\;i-  >h:i<lowy  and 
lark,  y  t  ilt  >.;  :hrr  sufficient  to  lead  the  soul  of  the  pious  bo- 
iievur  to  confidence  and  pear ;. 


25C  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


ey,  tli-tugh  from  its  nature  it  could  not  bat  be  wrapped 
to  some  extent  in  obscurity,  was  nevertheless  very  explicit  in 
declaring  the  general  truth,  that  a  Great  Salvation  was  to  be 
disclosed  in  coming  time,  and  an  age  of  happy  and  glorious 
juivili'ge  unfolded,  far  surpassing  all  tLs  previous  state  of  the 
rhuirJi.  This  testimony  was  strikingly  confirmed  by  the  great 
-\-tem  of  types,  which  God  ordered  for  the  help  of  faith. 
What  was  predicted  in  one  case  with  ic»r<l*,  was  prefigured  in 
the  other  by  shadowy  styns.  A  general  belief,  accordingly, 
was  cherished  by  the  whole  nation,  that  a  far  more  excellent 
and  happy  state  than  the  one  under  which  they  lived  was  to 
be  revealed  at  a  future  period.  It  was  universally  agreed,  too, 
that  this  happy  state  was  to  be  introduced  by  a  powerful  and 
glorious  Deliverer,  called  emphatically  by  the  prophet  Daniel, 
the  MESSIAH,  or  Anointed  One,  and  spoken  of  repeatedly  in 
other  places  under  different  names  —  such  as  the  SEED  of  the 
woman,  the  SEED  of  Abraham,  SHILOII,  the  BRANCH  out  of 
Jesse's  stem,  LMMANUEL,  &c.  Hence  they  were  accustomed 
to  speak  of  the  whole  period  of  the  world,  as  being  divided 
into  two  great  ages  —  the  first  reaching  from  the  beginning  to 
the  time  when  the  Messiah  should  appear,  and  then  yielding 
place  to  the  second,  which  was  to  abound  with  righteousness 
and  peace.  The  first,  in  which  they  lived  themselves,  they 
styled  This  aye,  or  The  present  aye;  the  other  was  distin- 
guished as  The  aye  to  come. 

Great  error,  however,  came  to  mingle  itself  with  this  expec- 
tation which  the  nation  cherished.  The  Scripture  representa- 
tions were  understood  in  a  low  and  narrow  sense.  The  de- 
scriptions of  that  coming  age,  the  latter  time,  when  the  reign 
of  the  Messiah  was  to  be  established  in  glorious  and  happy 
triumph,  had  been  set  forth  by  the  prophets  under  striking 
imagery  of  an  earthly  kind.  The  Great  Deliverer  was  repre- 
sented under  the  character  of  a  Prince,  clothed  with  highest 
majesty  and  power,  coming  to  occupy  the  throne  of  David. 
completely  overthrowing  all  the  enemies  of  his  people,  reducing 
the  world  to  subjection,  and  reigning  with  most  wise,  righteous, 
and  beneficent  authority,  so  as  to  make  his  dominion  full  of 
all  blessedness  and  peace.  His  people,  too,  were  spoken  of 
as  the  Jewish  kingdom,  and  called  by  the  names  of  Jsraef, 
Jitcnb,  &c.  All  this  had  a  meaning  far  more  lofty  and  excellent 
than  was  signified  by  the  terms  employed  when  taken  in  an 
earthly  sense.  The  kingdom  to  be  set  up  was  spiritual  ;  the 
deliverance  was  redemption  from  sin;  the  triumphant  glory 
was  victory  over  death  and  hell  ;  the  blessings  of  the  govern- 
ment were  holiness  and  eternal  life  j  the  people  crowned  with 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  251 

such  benefits  was  the  church  gathered  out  of  all  nations — the 
true  Israel  comprehending  all  in  every  place  that  embrace  the 
promises  of  God  by  faith.  A  serious  consideration  of  the  whole 
revelation  of  prophecy  on  this  point,  should  have  led  to  such 
a  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  worldly  imagery  used  in  many 
eases  in  relation  to  it.  But  a  worldly  temper  perverted  it 
it  into  an  occasion  of  error.  The  notion  of  an  earthly  and  tem- 
poral kingdom  dazzled  the  imagination.  The  Messiah,  it  came 
to  be  expected,  would  appear  with  irresistible  power  to  restore 
the  Jewish  nation  to  glory — to  raise  it  far  above  even  its  most 
triumphant  state  in  the  days  of  Solomon — to  introduce  and  es- 
tablish a  long  reign  of  liberty,  virtue  and  happiness.  As  the 
nation  sunk  under  the  pressure  of  foreign  power,  the  expecta- 
tion and  hope  of  such  a  deliverer  was  indulged  with  more  and 
more  fondness. 

There  were  always,  however,  some  who  entertained  more 
conect  ideas  on  this  subject.  Taught  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  they 
directed  their  faith  toward  a  higher  end.  They  looked  for 
spiritual  blessings,  as  the  most  desirable  in  the  promises  of 
God  concerning  the  Messiah.  Such  were  old  Simeon,  whn 
waited  for  the  consolation  of  Israel,  and  pious  Anna,  and  others 
in  Jerusalem  that  Iwked  for  redemption,  to  whom  she  spake 
of  Christ  when  he  was  yet  an  infant.  (Luke  ii.  25 — 38.)  Yet 
even  such  appear,  for  the  most  part,  to  have  entertained  the 
notion  that  the  benefits  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom  were  to  be 
enjoyed  especially  by  the  Jews,  and  that  the  Gentiles,  in  order 
to  have  part  in  them,  would  be  required  to  unite  themselves, 
as  proselytes,  with  the  Israelitish  church.  The  imagination 
of  a  worldly  dominion  too,  so  generally  indulged  by  others, 
was  ever  apt  to  creep  in  and  mingle  itself  to  some  extent  with 
their  best  conceptions.  How  this  imagination  cleaved  to  the 
minds  of  Christ's  disciples  for  a  long  time,  may  be  learned  from 
Matt.  xvi.  22,  xviii.  1,  xx.  20 — 28,  Mark  x.  35 — 37,  Luke 
xix.  11,  xxii.  24.  Our  Saviour  repeatedly  corrected  the  error, 
declaring  that  he  was  shortly  to  die  a  violent  death,  and  that 
all  who  became  his  true  followers  must  expect  no  earthly  vic- 
tories and  distinctions,  but  persecution  and  tribulation;  that 
the  blessings  of  his  kingdom  were  to  be  secured  only  by  giving 
up  all  the  expectations  of  worldly  happiness  which  men  natu- 
rally cherish,  and  that  they  far  excelled  all  that  the  Jews 
imagined  concerning  the  reign  of  the  Messiah,  being  spiritual 
altogether  and  heavenly  in  their  nature.  Still,  so  strong  was 
the  general  notion  in  their  minds  of  a  kingdom  to  be  set  up  on 
earth,  that  as  long  as  he  lived  it  was  not  relinquished.  Ac- 
cordingly, after  his  death,  we  hear  them  sorrowfully  saying, 


252  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

"we  Crusted  that  it  had  been  he  which  should  have  redeemed 
I.-r.i<>l;"  and  with  his  resurrection,  we  find  the  expectation  re- 
vived in  al!  its  strength — "Lord,"  they  said,  "wilt  thou  at 
this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom  to  Israel  5"'  (Luke  xxiv. 
21,  Acts  i.  6.)  The  Holy  Ghost,  however,  in  a  short  time, 
guided  them  into  a  knowledge  of  the  truth.  They  learned  to 
conceive  with  wider  and  loftier  views  of  Christ's  kingdom. 
Their  former  impressions  were  swallowed  up  in  the  discovery 
of  its  moral  glory — its  divine  grandeur — its  eternal  blessedness. 

Not  only  was  the  expectation  of  the  .Messiah  universal  among 
the  Jews,  but  there  was,  likewise,  a  general  agreement  about 
the  }>'  r'xxl  when  he  might  be  looked  for.  Ancient  prophecy 
had  pointed  to  the  time,  as  well  as  the  place,  of  his  appearance. 
(Gen.  xlix.  10,  Dan.  ix.  24 — 27.)  It  came  to  pass,  accordingly, 
that  in  that  very  age  in  which  our  Saviour  appeared  on  earth, 
the  people  were  expecting  the  promised  Deliverer  as  just  at 
hand.  The  opinion  prevailed,  that  the  time  wa>  then  come 
for  all  to  look  for  the  speedy  accomplishment  of  the  sure  word 
of  prophecy  on  this  subject.  Thus  Simeon  and  Anna,  and 
many  more  in  Jerusalem,  we  are  told,  were  waiting.  The  Sa- 
maritans united  with  the  Jews  in  this  hope,  and  seem  on  the 
whole  to  have  formed  juster  notions  than  th<  i/  hud  of  the  cha- 
racter of  the  Messiah.  (John  iv.  25,  29,  42.)  Nor  was  the 
expectation  confined  to  the  land  of  Palestine.  The  Jews,  being 
scatf.  red  at  that  time  into  many  foreign  countries,  caused  it  to 
take  root  in  other  regions;  so  that  there  came,  to  be  a  general 
idea  through  the  East,  that  a  great  prince  was  about  to  rise  out 
of  Judea  in  its  low  estate,  who  should  obtain  supreme  domi- 
nion in  the  world.  This  fact  is  mentioned  by  two  of  the  in--st 
respectable  heathen  hi>t<>rians  of  those  times.  (Matt.  ii.  1 — 12.) 

It  was  foretold  also  by  the  Spirit,  that  the  Me.—iah  should 
have  ^  fon  nnii!' r,  to  come  immediately  before  him,  and  pre- 
pare, as  it  were,  the  way  for  his  manifestation.  Great  and 
powerful  kings  in  the  East  were  accustomed,  when  niaki; 
journey,  to  send  such  before  them  to  have  the  road  made  ready 
ill  along  for  their  approach  :  so  it  was  represented,  a  voice 
ehould  be  heard  in  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  when  the  hea- 
venly King  was  about  to  appear,  giving  notice  of  his  coming, 
and  calling  upon  men  to  make  the  way  leady  for  his  presence 
(Isa.  xl.  8 — 5.)  What  sort  of  office  was  signified  by  this  figu- 
rative account  of  the  forerunner,  going  before  the  Messiah,  we 
learn  from  the  history  of  the  gospel.  (Luke  i.  70,  77,  iii.  2 — • 
18.)  I"  the  close  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  name  of  Elijah 
Mie  prophet,  was  applied  to  this  foreiunner.  (Mai.  iv.  f>,  6.) 
He  lice  au  opinion  came  to  prevail,  that  Elijah  himself  would 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  253 

**.>tiially  return  from  the  other  world,  and  make  his  appearance 
in  this  important  character.  It  was  a  doctrine  of  the  scribes, 
the  great  interpreters  of  Scripture,  that  Elias  in  his  own  person 
should  come  immediately  before  the  Messiah.  (Matt.  xvii.  10 
— 13.)  The  Jews  accordingly  put  the  question  to  John  th< 
Baptist  when  he  appeared,  after  he  had  told  them  that  he  was  not 
the  Christ,  Art  thou  Ellas  f  They  meaned  by  Elias  no  other 
than  the  ancient  prophet  of  Israel  himself:  John  therefore  as- 
sured them,  he  was  not  that  holy  man.  (John  i.  21.)  Yet  he 
icag  the  very  person  to  whom  that  name  bad  been  applied  in 
prophecy — the  great  forerunner  of  the  Messiah  :  Jesus  declared 
of  him,  "This  is  Elias,  which  was  for  to  come."  (Matt.  xi. 
14.)  But  when  he  was  called  by  that  name,  it  was  intimated 
only  that  he  should  resemble  Elijah  in  holiness,  self-denial  and 
faithful  boldness — or,  as  an  angel  once  explained  it,  that  he 
should  come  to  perform  his  ministry  "  in  the  spirit  and. power 
of  Elias."  (Luke  i.  17.)  There  were  some  who  imagined 
Jesus  himself  to  be  Elias  returned  to  the  world.  (Luke  ix.  8, 
19.) 

In  the  fulness  of  time,  the  long-expected  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,  came.  But  the  nation  knew  him  not;  "he 
came  to  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not."  With  the 
Jews  the  promise  had  been  deposited,  and  they  had  given  the 
world  to  understand  their  expectation  of  its  glorious  accom- 
plishment; but  the  accomplishment  itself  they  were  notable 
to  see,  while  others  saw  and  believed,  and  rejoiced  in  the  un- 
speakable grace  of  God. 

By  this  event,  a  new  and  far  more  glorious  dispensation  was 
introduced.  The  old  one,  having  answered  all  its  purpose,  was 
commanded  to  pass  away  for  ever.  The  ceremonial  law  losr 
all  its  obligation,  having  been  imposed  only  till  this  "  time  of 
reformation."  (Heb.  ix.  10.)  The  rtilddli  w<ill  of  partition, 
between  the  Jews  and  other  nations  of  the  world,  was  broken 
down  :  "  the  enmity,  even  the  law  of  commandments  contained 
\n  ordinances"  was  abolished.  (Eph  ii.  14,  15.)  All  distinc- 
flon  between  Jew  and  Gentile  as  to  any  peculiar  favour  of 
heaven,  was  over.  One  was  invited  as  freely  as  the  other  to 
join  the  family  of  God,  and  take  part  in  the  rich  blessings  of 
his  grace.  Peace  was  commanded  to  be  preached  to  all — those 
that  wereyiir  off  as  well  as  those  that  were  «/<//<. 

To  those  who  had  been  trained  up  with  the  notions  and 
feelings  of  Jews,  this  could  not  but  seem  a  most  wonderful 
doctrine.  They  had  grown  u]>  with  a  strong  impression,  which 
all  their  education  tended  to  fix  deeply  in  the  mind,  that  God 
h;nl  shut  out  all  other  people  entirely  from  his  regard,  and  thai 


L'54  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

th^  blessings  of  the  true  religion  were,  by  his  unalterable  pur- 
[«ise,  to  be  confined  to  their  own  nation;  so  that  no  Gentile 
••"ould  ever  be  admitted  to  the  friendship  of  God,  except  by. 
numbering  himself  with  the  Jews  as  a  proselyte  to  their  church 
When  the  gospel,  therefore,  declared  that  all  difference  was 
taken  away,  and  invited  all  alike  to  embrace  its  benefits,  many 
needed  no  other  objection  to  lead  them  to  reject  it  at  once 
(  Acts  xxii.  '21,  22.)  Even  those  who  were  truly  converted  to 
receive  its  truth,  were  slow  in  coming  to  a  clear  understanding 
of  this  point.  It  was  hard  for  them  to  feel  that  the  d<»or  of 
grace  stood  as  widely  and  as  freely  open  to  the  Gentile,  without 
any  respect  to  the  law  of  Moses,  as  it  did  to  the  circumcised 
Jew.  (Acts  x.  10—16,  28,  45,  xi.  1— 18.)  Hence  we  find  it 
declared  so  often  in  the  New  Testament,  with  a  sort  of  peculiar 
emphasis,  as  a  thing  new,  wonderful,  and  contrary  to  former 
prejudice,  that  the  gospel  offered  its  blessings  to  the  (!i-ntllrs 
— to  all — to  the  world — to  the  wli>il<  //•<//•/</,  without  distinc- 
tion of  nation  or  place.  (Matt,  xxviii.  19,  Luke  xxiv.  47,  48, 
Acts  xiii.  46,  47,  xvii.  30,  31,  xxvi.  17,  18,  xxviii.  28,  Rom. 
i.  16,  iii.  29,  30,  1  Tim.  ii.  4—6,  Tit.  ii.  11,  1  John  ii.  2.) 
Paul  speaks  of  it  as  a  glorious  mystery.  (Eph.  iii.  3  -G.)  The 
word  mystery  in  this  case,  as  generally  in  his  epistles,  means 
simply  something  that  was  utterly  unhmum  before  God  revealed 
it  by  the  gospel — a  thing  that  was  for  a  long  time  /</</» A  // ;  not 
implying  that  there  was  any  thing  in  its  nature  wliieli  could 
not  be  explained  or  understood,  as  the  term  commonly  meuiH 
with  us. 

Neither  was  it  e«isy  for  the  converted  Jew,  even  when  he 
had  learned  that  Aepoipei  nufn/<l,<l  it*  i>riri/,;/,x  «y //•/////  tn  «//, 
either  to  cast  off  all  regard  himself  to  the  system  of  religion 
which  he  had  so  long  been  accustomed  to  reverence  as  ap- 
pointed of  Heaven,  or  to  be  satisfied  that  the  Gentile  convert." 
should  be  entirely  free  from  its  observances.  \\'<  are  not  able 
fully  to  enter  into  the  difficulty  which  he  naturally  felt  on  this 
point.  It  is  not  therefore  strange,  that  we  find  such  jters.ii!> 
still  clinging  to  some  of  their  ancient  rites  in  the  Christian 
church,  making  it  a  matter  of  conscience  to  observe  them 
(Acts  xxi.  20,  21,  Rom.  chap,  xv.)  With  feelii-jr*  of  this 
sort,  it  is  not  strange  likewise  that  they  slmuld  sometimes  have 
insisted  upon  it  as  a  duty  for  others  also,  even  those  who  had 
never  been  Jews,  not.  to  neglect  them.  False  teachers,  from 
various  motives  of  pride  or  worldly  i>»licy,  were  very  ready  to 
take  advantage  of  this  prejudice,  and  to  sjiread  it  with  all  their 
mi.irht  indifferent  churches;  endeavouring  to  jtirsuade  those 
who  had  beet  Jews,  that  they  should  hold  fast  part  of  thc-ii 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  255 

Old  religious  usages,  and  tho«e  who  were  Gentiles,  that  they 
ought  to  be  circumcised  and  pay  some  regard  to  the  Ceiemo- 
nial  law.  (Acts  xv.  1,  24,  Gal.  ii.  3—5,  vi.  12,  13.)  Hence 
arose,  generally,  the  first  errors  in  the  churches.  The  Gala- 
tian  church  was  turned  away  almost  altogether  from  the  truth 
of  the  gospel  by  this  means,  as  we  learn  from  the  severe  letter 
which  Paul  wrote  to  them  on  account  of  it.  In  his  other  epis- 
tles, we  find  notices  of  a  similar  evil  at  work  in  other  place* 
also.  It  took,  however,  different  forms.  A  vain  philosophy 
endeavoured  to  connect  its  new  and  wild  opinions  with  a  por- 
tion of  the  Jewish  law,  and  then  under  this  mixed  character 
crept  into  the  Christian  church,  showing  various  features  of 
error  in  different  congregations.  "  Men  of  corrupt  minds  and 
destitute  of  the  truth,"  "  proud  and  knowing  nothing,  but 
doting  about  questions  and  strifes  of  words,"  "  unruly  and 
vain  talkers,"  "  deceived"  themselves,  and  worse  "  deceiving" 
others,  introduced  these  corruptions,  spoiling  the  tranquillity  of 
churches,  and  turning  men  aside  from  true  godliness.  (Col.  ii. 
8—23,  1  Tim.  i.  3—7,  iv.  1—8,  vi.  3—5,  2  Tim.  ii.  14—18, 
23,  iii.  G— 9,  Tit.  i.  10—16,  iii.  9.) 

The  apostle  Paul  did  not  in  every  case  forbid,  as  sin,  all 
compliances  with  Jewish  observances.  When  they  were  such 
as  not  to  interfere  with  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  or  were  not 
used  as  entering  into  the  substance  of  true  religion,  he  suffered 
the  conscientious  scruples  of  weak  Christians  in  regard  to  them 
to  be  indulged.  He  exhorted  others  also,  who  felt  no  such 
scruples  themselves,  to  give  way  in  their  practice  to  such  pre- 
judices of  their  brethren  around  them,  so  far  as  the  things 
which  they  respected  were  in  their  nature  indifferent.  (Rom. 
xiv.  14 — 23.)  He  himself  acted  on  this  principle,  forbearing 
to  use  his  Christian  liberty  in  all  lawful  cases,  whenever  it  was 
likely  to  give  offence.  (Acts  xvi.  3,  xviii.  18,  xxi.  21 — 26, 
Rom.  xv.  1,  1  Cor.  ix.  20.)  But  when  a  disposition  was  dis- 
covered to  rely  upon  these  observances  as  a  ground  of  confidence 
toward  God,  and  as  entering  essentially  into  his  plan  of  salva- 
tion, the  apostle  condemned  them  in  the  strongest  terms,  and 
would  not  countenance  such  as  clung  to  them,  with  the  smallest 
ndulgence.  To  such  he  said,  "  If  ye  be  circumcised,  Christ 
shall  profit  you  nothing ;  for  I  testify  to  every  man  that  is  cir- 
ciimeiseil,  that  he  is  a  debtor  to  keep  the  whole  law.  Christ 
iu  become  of  no  effect  unto  you,  whosoever  of  you  are  justified 
by  the  law  ;  ye  are  fallen  from  grace."  Thus  he  expostulated 
with  the  (Jalatiaiis,  who  had  been  drawn  aside  from  the  simple 
truth  of  tin1  !_r"si"'l,  by  false  teachers,  into  this  ruinous  error 
Especially,  he  thought  it  necesst  ry,  steadfastly  to  n-si^tallcou  pl;- 


^56  lilHLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ance  on  the  part  of  Gentile  Christians  with  the  Ceremonial 
law.  The  considerations  which  made  it  proper  to  allow  sonic 
indulgence  to  the  .Je\vi<h  convert-;,  had  no  place  with  suvli  a* 
had  not  been  educated  from  childhood  in  the  Jews'  religion  . 
a  converted  .Jew  might  be  supposed  to  cleave  to  some  of  his 
ancient  usages,  under  the  force  of  conscientious  prejudice,  with 
out  falling  from  or  abandoning  the  doctrine  of  free  grace  through 
faith,  while  the  observance  of  the  same  usages  on  the  part,  of  a 
(I.  ntile  convert,  who  had  no  such  natural  prejudice  to  entangle 
his  conscience,  would  argue  a  deliberate  confidence  in  the  Jew- 
ish law  as  a  method  of  obtaining  favour  with  God,  and  so  give 
reason  to  fear  a  fatal  departure  from  the  great  fundamental 
truth  of  the  gospel,  that  n  mnn  in  just ifi«l  l>y  (li>  faith  of  Jesus 
Cltrint  alone,  ami  not  l>i/  tin-  irrtrkx  uf  (he  litir. — The  apostle, 
therefore,  would  not  give  place  to  such  as  wanted  to  draw  the 
Gentiles  into  the  observance  of  Jewish  rites,  no,  not  for  an 
hour:  and  he  anxiously  guarded  against  every  thing,  in  exam 
pie  as  well  as  precept,  among  Christians  of  this  class,  which 
might  have  the  smallest  influence  to  make  them  think  that  any 
thing  of  this  sort  belonged  to  true  religion.  lie  thought  it 
necessary,  accordingly,  on  one  occasion  at  Antioch,  to  with- 
stand Peter  to  the  face,  and  publicly  to  reprove  him  for  his  un- 
faithfulness on  this  point,  in  the  most  solemn  manner.  ((J  il 
ii.  11—14.) 


CHAPTER  H. 
THE  TABERNACLE. 

THK  T.MiKUNAri.K  was  made  in  the  wilderness  according  tn 
the  commandment  of  God.  By  a  solemn  covenant,  the  l.-rael- 
ites  had  engaged  to  be  his  obedient  people,  and  he  had  taken 
them,  as  a  nation,  out  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  to  lie  ;i 
holy  kingdom  for  himself.  They  were  to  be  under  his  special 
and  extraordinary  care,  and  to  be  governed  in  their  whole  civil 
and  religious  state  by  his  peculiar  and  extraordinary  direction. 
They  were  to  be  his  chnn-h,  and  the  whole  frame  of  their  com- 
monwealth was  to  be  constructed  with  reference  to  the  great 
•  merest  for  which  the  church  was  established.  Accordingly, 
he  Most  High  gave  them  a  law,  and  agreed  to  dwell 
'.hem  with  his  continual  and  special  presence,  in  a  saii 
u'lieh  he  directed  to  be  prepared  for  this  high  and  soiemn 
I'h  us  the  Tabernacle  had  its  origin 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  257 

It  was  required  to  be  made,  together  with  all  its  furniture, 
from  the  offerings  which  the  people  might  be  willing  to  present 
for  the  purpose.  All  were  invited  to  contribute  something  for 
an  end  so  important;  but  it  was  left  to  each  individual  to  act 
iu  the  matter  with  perfectly  free  choice.  The  offering  of  every 
man  was  to  be  given  willingly  with  his  heart.  By  reason  of 
the  great  readiness  of  the  people  to  offer,  materials  more  than 
enough  were  soon  collected.  Men  and  women  united  in  showing 
their  zeal,  by  contributions  of  every  various  sort  that  could  be 
useful,  till  an  order  had  to  be  publicly  given  for  them  to  bring 
no  more.  (Ex.  xxv.  1 — 8,  xxxv.  4 — 29,  xxxvi.  3 — 7.) 

As  the  work  to  be  accomplished  needed  various  materials  of 
the  most  costly  sort,  so  it  called  for  peculiar  skill  to  execute  it 
in  the  way  which  its  magnificent  design  required.  Accordingly, 
God  raised  up  Bezalcel  the  son  of  Uri,  and  Aholiab  the  son 
of  Ahisamach,  filling  them  with  wisdom  and  understanding  in 
all  manner  of  workmanship,  to  have  the  entire  charge  of  the 
whole  business.  They  were  qualified,  with  more  than  ordinary 
or  merely  natural  ability,  to  perform  themselves  the  most  diffi- 
cult and  curious  sorts  of  work,  such  as  belonged  to  arts  entirely 
different,  and  also  to  teach  others,  who  might  be  employed, 
under  their  direction,  to  help  forward,  in  various  ways,  the 
general  labour.  (Ex.  xxxi.  1—6,  xxv.  30 — 35.) 

It  was  not  left,  however,  to  these  workmen,  or  even  to  Moses, 
to  contrive  the  form  or  manner  of  the  sacred  building  in  any 
respect.  No  pattern  of  earth  was  to  be  regarded — no  device 
of  man  was  to  be  followed,  in  its  whole  construction  and  ar- 
rangement. It  was  to  be  the  dwelling-place  of  God,  symboli- 
cal, in  all  its  visible  and  material  order,  of  realities  infinitely 
more  grand  and  glorious;  God  himself  therefore  devised  its 
entire  plan,  and  unfolded  it  with  most  particular  direction,  in 
all  its  parts,  to  his  sen-ant  on  Mount  Sinai.  Careful  and  mi- 
nute instruction  was  given  relative  to  the  material  to  be  used, 
/he  manner  of  workmanship  to  be  employed,  the  form  and  size 
of  the  building,  and  every  article  of  sacred  furniture  that  was 
to  belong  to  it.  And  more  than  this,  there  was  presented  to 
the  eyes  of  Moses  a  pattern,  or  model,  of  the  whole,  as  the 
Ix>rd  intended  it  to  be  made  and  arranged,  with  a  solemn  in- 
junction to  have  all  finished  exactly  according  to  it.  "  Ac- 
cording to  all  that  I  show  thee,"  was  the  charge  of  the  Al- 
mighty, "  the  pattern  of  the  tabernacle  and  the  pattern  of  all 
the  instruments  thereof,  even  so  shall  ye  make  it :"  and  again, 
"  Look  that  thou  make  them  after  their  pattern,  which  was 
showed  thee  in  the  mount."  (Ex.  xxv.  9—40,  Heb  viii.  5.) 
There  was  no  wisdom  wanted  in  the  workmen,  then -fun,  u» 

13* 


258 


BIBLICAL    AN"1QU1TJE8. 


cnittrtrr  any  part  of  the  work  to  be  done,  but  merely  to 

it  according  to  the  divine  plan  which   Moses  was  appointed  to 

explain. 

The  very  great  care  which  God  showed  about  tin-  manner  in 
which  this  holy  tabernacle  was  to  be  made,  teaches  us  that  it 
was  designed  to  have  a  meaning  in  all  its  parts  vastly  more 
important  than  any  mere  visible  and  outward  use.  Stum-thing 
far  more  exalted  than  what  struck  the  eye  of  sense,  was  in- 
tended in  its  construction.  Under  its  earthly  and  material 
show,  there  was  designed  to  be  a  represt-ntatinn  of  things  hea- 
venly and  spiritual,  such  as  should  be  full  of  instruction  to  the 
church  till  the  end  of  time.  In  this  consideration  we  have  ut.- 
folded  a  satisfactory  reason  for  that  extraordinary  ean-  will 
which  the  original  plan  was  divinely  determined,  and  also  for 
the  care  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  causing  so  full  and  particular 
an  account  of  it  to  be  preserved  in  the  Scriptures  for  the  use 
of  piety  in  all  ages.  And  should  not  this  reflection  excite  us 
to  seek  an  intimate  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  ancient 
sanctuary?  Surely  it  becomes  us  to  consider  all  the  parts  of 
its  plan  with  serious  and  careful  attention,  •vmemhering  at  every 
step  the  heavenly  origin  of  all,  and  humbly  endeavouring  to 
penetrate  through  the  shadow  of  its  earthly  service  into  the 
sublime  and  glorious  realities,  which,  according  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  Spirit,  it  proposes  for  our  solemn  contemplation. 

To  have  a  right  conception  of  the  sacred  dwelling-place  which 
the  Most  High  caused  to  be  made  for  Himself  among  the  Is- 
raelites in  the  wilderness,  we  must  consider  the  Tal>ernacle  it- 
self, its  furniture,  and  its  Court.  Let  us-  attend  tirst  to  the 
Court. 

THK  COURT  OF  THE  TABERNACLE  was  a  lot  of  enclosed 

ground  which 
surrounded  the 
Tabernacle, aid 
all  that  was  con- 
nected with  it, 
comprehending 

room     enough 

for  the  accom 
modation  of  .-ill 
that  Were  to  1  c 

at  any  time  di- 
n  ctly   concern- 
ed with  its  reli- 
gious    Sl  -I'- 
ll was  required 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


259 


to  be  a  hundred  cubits  long  from  east  to  west,  and  fifty 
broad  from  north  to  south.  It  was  enclosed  to  the  height  of 
flvo  cubits  on  every  side,  with  curtains  of  fine  twined  linen 
These  were  hung  from  brazen  pillars,  ranged  at  equal  distance 
one  from  another  in  a  row  on  each  side,  either  by  being  fastened 
to  them  merely  by  hooks  of  silver,  or  else  by  means  of  silver 
rods  reaching  all  along  from  one  to  another.  The  pillars  had 
sockets  of  brass  to  stand  upon.  There  were  twenty  of  them  mi 
the  north,  and  on  the  south  side,  and  ten  in  each  of  the  end 
ranges,  cast  and  west.  The  entrance  into  this  court  was  on  the 
east  end,  and  exactly  in  the  middle  of  it.  It  was  twenty  cubit;, 
wide.  It  was  closed  by  a  hanging  different  from  the  other  cui 
tains,  "  of  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet  and  fine  twined  linen, 
wrought  with  needlework."  This  was  hung  from  four  pillars,, 
and  could  be  drawn  up  by  means  of  cords,  so  as  to  leave  th«. 
entrance  open  when  there  was  occasion  to  go  in  or  out.  (Ex 
xxvii.  9—18.) 

The  TABERNACLE  stood  well  toward  the  west  end  of  the. 
court  just  described,  and  in  the  middle  of  its  breadth  from 
north  to  south,  so  as  to  face  exactly  the  entrance  upon  the  east 
side.  It  was  made  of  boards  of  shittim  wood  overlaid  with 
gold,  and  four  coverings  of  different  materials  thrown  over  its 
whole  frame,  to 
shield  it  from 
the  weather,  and 
to  shut  out  com- 
pletely the  light 
of  day.  When 
set  up  it  was 
thirty  cubits 
long,  ten  broad, 
and  ten  high. 
Like  what  has 
been  noticed  of 
the  court,  it  was 
required  always 
to  be  placed 
with  its  length  from  east  to  west,  and  its  entrance  was  at  ita 
ea-t  end.  This  end,  accordingly,  was  not  boarded.  The  boards 
were  all  ten  cubits  long,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half  broad,  and  had 
each  two  tenons  fashioned  on  one  end.  In  the  building,  th.  \ 
Htood  upright,  joined  edge  to  edge,  and  every  one  re.-ting  b\-  if* 
two  tenons  on  two  nlver  sockets.  Thus  on  each  of  tin1  side*. 
north  and  south,  were  twenty  hoards,  which  standing  in  the  way 
now  mentioned  made  a  wall  just  thirty  cubits  long  The 


2fiO  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

end  had  six  boards,  and  there  was  one  besides  at  euch  of  the 
corners  of  that  end,  which,  while  they  served  to  connect  it  with 
the  sides,  seem  also  to  have  added  somewhat  to  its  extent,  so 

as  to  make  the  breadth  of  the  tabernacle  ten  cubits,  that  would 
with  only  tho  six  hoards  have  made  no  more  than  nine.  Al- 
together (hen  there  were  forty-eight  boards  standing  upon 
ninety-six  sockets  of  silver.  Every  socket  weighed  a  talent 
The  boards,  however,  needed  somet hi ng  to  hold  them  together 
Jiars,  therefore,  or  poles,  of  shittim  wood  overlaid  with  gi>ld, 
were  made  to  pass  across  them  through  rings  fixed  on  each 
one  for  the  purpose,  )>y  which  means  all  the  hoards  of  each 
side,  or  of  the  end,  were  firmly  hound  one  to  another.  Five 
bars  wen'  employed  in  this  wav  on  each  side,  and  also  on  the 
end  :  the  middle  one  reached  from  end  to  end,  across  all  the 
boards  :  the  other  four  were,  according  to  one  opinion,  each 
only  half  as  long,  two  of  them  together  making  a  whole  length 
across  at  the  top.  and  the  other  two  a  whole  length  across  in 
like  manner  at  the  bottom.  Another  opinion  is,  that  all  the 
bars  were  of  full  length,  and  that  what  is  said  ahout  the  mid- 
dle one,  means  only  that  it  was  fixed  in  its  place  in  a  different 
way  from  the  others,  being  either  sunk  into  \\\  •  boards  in  a 
sort  of  groove,  all  the  way  along,  or  else  thrust  tl/rom/h  them, 
by  mean-  of  a  bar  passing  clear  across  from  one  to  another 
'Ex.  xxvi.  15—30.) 

Such  was  the  frame  of  the  tabernacle,  presenting,  when 
trected,  on  each  of  its  sides  and  its  western  end,  a  heavy  wall 
of  shittim  planks  gorgeously  covered  over  with  gold,  and  sup- 
ported beneath  on  ninety-six  IM;I  —  \  sockets  of  silver.  It  left 
Mie  top,  as  well  as  the  end  toward  the  east,  entirely  open. 
But  to  make  the  sacred  tent  complete,  over  this  frame  were  to 
be  spread  four  great  coverings,  one  above  another.  The  first 
was  very  beautiful  and  costly.  It  wa-  composed  of  ten  curtains 
of  fine  twined  linen,  and  bine,  and  purple,  and  "scarlet,  made 
with  cherubim  of  cunning  work;"  that  is,  of  tine  twined  linen 
into  which  pictures  of  cherubim  were  curiously  wrought  with 
various  colours,  blue,  purple  and  scarlet.  Ivu-h  of  these  cur 
tains  was  twenty-eight  cubits  long  and  four  broad.  Five  ol 
them  were  coupled  together,  side  to  side,  so  as  to  make  ouo 
large  piece,  twenty-eight  cubits  long  and  twenty  broad,  and  so 
in  like  manner  were  the  other  five  united  into  another  piece. 
Along  the  edge  of  the  outermost  curtain  on  one  side  of  each  of 
these  great  pieces,  or  C»H/>//'/I>/.<,  were  made  fifty  loops  of  blue, 
«o  placed,  that  those  which  belonged  to  one  piece  answered 
u-tiy  to  thus.'  which  were  on  the  other.  Then  fifty  hooks  or 
flasps  of  gold  were  provided,  by  which  these  loops  might  b« 


A  SIDE  VIEW  OF  THE  TAliKK.N ACI.K   Wlllt    ITS  C»VKKlX<iS. 


P,  the  five  pillars  at  tlie  entrance:  I.,  the  under  coverln:;  of  flnn  liu»-ii 
en  rial  n» ;  O,  curtains  of  goat's  liair;  U,  covering  of  ram'*  »kiu-:  I", 
coverldgN  of  badger'n  skin-. 


THE  TABEKNACLE  UXCOVEKED. 


A,  the  Holy  Place ;  D,  the  MostHV.y  of  Ho 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  261 

ul  along  hnked  one  to  another,  and  the  two  pieces  thus  knit 
together  into  one  rich  and  magnificent  covering.  They  were 
throwr.  across  the  frame  of  the  tabernacle  from  north  to  south, 
and  hung  down  on  each  side  within  a  cubit  of  the  bottom  ;  for. 
since  the  frame  was  ten  cubits  hig'u  and  ten  wide,  the  measure 
tircr  it  from  the  base  of  the  wall  on  one  side  to  its  base  on 
the  other,  was  just  thirty  cubits,  that  is,  two  cubits  more  than 
the  length  of  the  curtains. 

One  of  the  pieces  seems  to  have  been  laid  across,  so  as  to 
reach  from  the  front  of  the  tabernacle,  covering  the  top  and 
sides,  as  far  as  twenty  cubits  back  :  then  the  other,  linked  upon 
it  by  the  loops  and  clasps,  was  spread  over  the  hinder  part, 
covering  the  top  and  sides  in  like  manner  from  where  the  first 
stopped,  and  fulling  down  in  loose  folds  over  the  western  end. 
Over  this  fine  inner  covering  was  spread  another  more  substan- 
tial. It  was  composed  of  eleven  curtains  of  goats'  hair,  each 
thirty  cubits  long  and  four  broad.  These  also  were  united  into 
two  large  pieces,  one  being  made  up  of  five,  and  the  other  of 
six  ;  and  provision  was  made,  as  in  the  case  of  the  inner  cov- 
ering, for  linking  the  pieces  together  by  loops  and  clasps.  The 
ela-p-  u-ed  in  this  case,  however,  were  made  of  brass,  and  not, 
as  they  were  in  tlie  other,  of  gold. 

These  pieces,  being  thrown  across  the  tabernacle  like  the 
others,  reached  down  on  each  side  to  the  row  of  silver  sockets 
on  which  the  boards  stocxi ;  because  they  were  thirty  cubits 
long,  which,  as  we  have  just  seen,  was  equal  to  the  distance 
from  one  base  over  to  the  other.  The  piece  that  was  composed 
of  six  single  curtains,  lay  toward  the  fore-part  of  the  taber- 
nacle, and  the  sixth  curtain  was  doubled  in  the  fore-front  of 
it,  so  as  to  hang  somewhat  perhaps  over  the  entrance.  It  is 
not  ea>\ .  however,  to  determine  precisely  how  this  covering 
\\as  disposed,  in  front  and  on  the  western  end  behind,  so  as  to 
have  its  cloth  which  it  had  more  than  the  other,  completely 
occupied.  But  in  whatever  way  arranged,  it  spread  entirely 
over  the  top,  and  sides,  and  back  part  of  the  frame,  so  as  to 
hide  the  inner  covering  altogether  out  of  sight,  and  shield  it 
on  every  part  from  injury. — But  still  more  effectually  to  shu« 
c.ut  harm,  there  was  added  a  third  covering  of  rams'  skins 
dyed  red,  and  over  that  again  a  fourth  one,  made  of  the  skin* 
jf  some  sea-animal.  Thus  the  whole  was  most  perfectly  de- 
fended from  the  weather.  (Ex.  xxvi.  1 — 14.) 

Across  tl aat.  end,  or  raft-mirr,  of  the  tabernacle,  were 

ranged  live  pillars  of  shittim  wood,  overlaid  with  gold,  stand- 
ing upon  sockets  of  brass ;  and  from  these  uas  suspended  a 
rurfaiti  or  hanging  of  blue  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  tin« 


262  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

twined  linen,  wrought  with  needlework,  large  enough  to  cciveT 
the  whole  front.  This  was  the  </</<//•  nf  tin •  t>  nt.  There  wa« 
probably  another  curtain  of  coarser  materials  liun^r  over  thip 
tine  one  on  the  outside,  to  keep  it  from  being  spoiled  ;  at  least 
we  may  suppose  it  was  so  when  the  weather  was  bad.  (Ex 
xxvi.  36,  37.) 

The  inside  of  the  tabernacle  was  divided  into  two  apartments, 
by  another  curtain  uung  entirely  across  it  from  the  top  to  the 
bottom.  This  curtain  was  richly  wrought  with  figures  of 
cherubim,  like  the  fine  inner  covering  spread  above,  and  was 
suspended  upon  four  shittim  pillars  overlaid  with  gold,  that 
stood  on  so  many  weighty  sockets  of  silver.  It  was  called  the 
veil,  and  sometimes  (he  second  veil,  as  the  one  which  hung  over 
the  entrance  had  to  be  passed  through  before  coming  to  it. 
(Heb.  ix.  3.)  The  front  apartment  formed  by  this  hanging 
partition,  which  reached  from  it  to  the  dooi  of  the  tent,  was 
twenty  cubits  in  length  :  it  was  called  tin-  Holy  /'A/'r,  and  also 
the  First  Tulx  nun-le.  The  other  apartment,  reaching  from  the 
dividing  veil  to  the  western  end  of  the  tabcrnuele,  was  of  course 
completely  square  every  way,  its  length,  its  breadth,  and  ita 
height,  being  each  exactly  ten  cubits :  it  was  called  the  M"*t 
Hoi i/  Place,  the  Holy  of  holies,  or  the  Holiest  of  all,  and  some- 
times also  (he  second  or  inner  tabernacle.  (Ex.  xxvi.  31 — 33, 
Heb.  ix.  2—8,  12,  24.) 

The  FURNITURE  of  the  sanctuary  and  its  court  next  claims 
our  consideration.  Here  we  are  to  notice  the  altar  of  burnt- 
offering  and  the  brazen  laver  that  stood  in  the  court;  the  altar 
of  incense,  the  candlestick,  and  the  table  of  show-bread  which 
belonged  to  the  holy  place;  and  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  with 
its  mercy-seat  overshadowed  by  the  cherubim  of  glory,  which 
abode  in  awful  retirement  within  the  holiest  of  all. 

1.  The  Altar  of  bttmt-ojjfaring,  or  the  Brazen  Altar,  stood 
directly  in  front  of  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  off  from  it  to- 
ward the  centre  of  the  courts,  so  as  to  be  in  a  line  between  the 
tabernacle  and  the  entrance  of  the  court  on  the  east  end.  Ita 
frame  was  square,  and  hollow  within,  in  length  and  in  breadth 
five  cubits,  and  in  height  three.  The  sides  were  made  of  boards 
of  shittim  wood  completely  overspread  with  brass  :  some  think, 
however,  that  they  were  boarded  in  this  way  only  from  the 
middle  upward,  while  below  they  were  composed  of  some  sort 
of  brazen  net-work.  It  is  not  altogether  clear  either,  in  what 
way  the  inside  was  occupied.  We  are  told  in  the  Bible,  that 
(/  I/nit,  nf  nit-work  of  brass  was  put  under  the  comjHtss  of  the 
vltdr  licnculh,  so  as  to  be  even  unto  tin-  initial  of  it.  This  some 
suppose  to  have  been  hung  within  the  hollow  frame,  (which 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  20? 

they  conceive  was  cased  with  boards  all  the  way  down,)  jut,t 
in  the  middle  between  the  bottom  and  the  top  of  it,  and  th:it 
it  was  the  sacred  fire-place  where  the  sacrifices  were  to  be 
burned  :  it  was  made  full  of  holes,  they  say,  round  about  and 
below,  to  let  the  ashes  fall  through  to  the  bottom  of  the  altar, 
where  there  was  a  little  door  on  one  side  by  which  they  might 
be  taken  out  to  be  carried  away.  Another  opinion  is,  that 
across  the  middle  of  the  frame  there  was  fixed  some  kind  bf 
flooring,  and  that  the  whole  upper  half  above  this  was  filled 
with  earth,  on  which  the  sacrifice-fires  wore  kindled ;  while  the 
lower  part,  it  is  imagined,  was  altogether  unoccupied,  being 
enclosed  only  with  grated  sides,  according  to  the  idea  already 
mentioned,  through  which  in  certain  cases  the  blood  of  the 
victim  was  poured  under  the  altar.  (Lev.  iv.  7,  18,  25.)  This 
opinion,  therefore,  supposes  the  grate  of  brazen  mt-vork  put 
vixit-rrhi'  roni/xix*  of  the,  nltnr  /n/ieath,  to  be  nothing  else  than 
the  lower  half  of  the  frame  itself  made  with  grated  sides,  on 
which  the  upper  half,  closely  boarded  and  filled  with  earth, 
was  made  to  rest.  There  is  certainly  the  best  reason  to  be- 
lieve, that  the  sacrifices  were  burned  upon  a  surface  of  earth, 
and  not  upon  a  metal  grate,  from  the  direction  in  Ex.  xx.  24. 
We  are  to  suppose,  therefore,  that  such  a  surface,  on  its  top, 
the  altar  of  burnt-offering  did  present,  and  that  its  brazen 
frame  was  formed  only  to  support  and  hold  together  the  earthy 
pile  in  which  it  especially  consisted.  It  had  four  horns,  one 
rising  from  each  of  its  corners.  These  seem  to  have  been 
clothed  with  a  peculiar  sacredness,  as  in  particular  cases  of 
solemn  sacrifice  the  priest  was  required  to  put  on  every  one 
of  them  some  of  the  blood.  (Lev.  iv.  25,  30,  xvi.  18.)  Hence 
it  was  usual  for  those  who  fled  to  the  altar  for  protection  and 
safety,  (according  to  an  ancient  custom  which  caused  it  to  be 
regarded  as  a  sanctuary  or  sacred  asylum,)  to  lay  hold  upon 
its  horns.  (1  Kings  i.  50—53,  ii.  28—34,  Ex.  xxi.  14.)  At 
the  same  time,  the  horns  added  to  the  goodly  appearance  of 
the  whole  structure,  and  they  were  made  so  strong,  that  ani- 
mals, when  about  to  be  sacrificed,  might  be  secured  to  them 
with  cords,  as  it  seems  they  sometimes  were.  (Ps.  cxviii.  27.) 
A  sloping  walk  of  earth  heaped  up,  was  made  to  rise  gradually 
on  one  side  to  the  top  of  the  altar,  by  which  persons  might  go 
upon  it.  (Ex  xx.  26.)  Connected  with  the  altar  were  several 
different  sorts  of  instruments ;  such  as  pain  to  carry  away  the 
ashes,  shnc<l.<  for  taking  them  up,  baxins  for  receiving  the  blood 
of  the  victims,  and  jli-*h-li<ink<  fur  turning  pieces  of  flesh  in  the 
fire:  all  of  them  were  made  of  t>rav<.  (  K\.  .\\vii.  1 — 8.) 
On  this  altar  the  fire  was  required  to  be  kept  ever  burning 


264  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

A  short  time  after  it  was  set  up,  there  came  fire  in  a  rain^u- 
lous  manner,  from  the  Lord,  and  kindled  upon  the  offering 
that  was  laid  in  order  on  its  top.  This  sacred  flame  was  che- 
rished with  the  greatest,  care  from  year  to  year,  and  none  was 
allowed  to  be  brought  ever  afterwards  from  any  other  quarter, 
to  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  tahernac-le  in  any  way. 
For  presum|ittmusly  making  use  of  fire  not  taken  from  the 
altar,  immediat-ly  after  their  consecration  to  the  priestly  office, 
Nadab  and  Abihu  were  destroyed  by  an  awful  judgment  from 
the  Almighty.  (Lev.  vi.  12,  18,  ix.  -J4,  x.  1—10.) 

The  altar  was  fed  with  the  unceasing  sacrifice  of  life.  The 
place  where  it  stood  was  a  place  of  daily  slaughter.  The  stain 
of  blood  was  at  all  times  fresh  upon  its  sides.  From  its  sum- 
mit, rose,  almost  without  interruption,  the  smoke  of  burning 
flesh ;  and  dark  oftentimes  and  exceedingly  heavy  was  the 
cloud  with  which  it  mounted  toward  heaven.  Thus  it  was  a 
continual  remembrancer  of  six,  displaying  in  lively  representa- 
tion its  awful  guilt,  and  the  consuming  wrath  of  Heaven  which 
it  deserves.  It  stood  in  front  of  the  sacred  dwelling-place  of 
God,  to  signify  that  his  holy  nature  could  not  endure  sin,  or 
allow  it  to  pass  unpunished ;  and  that  he  never  would  there- 
fore admit  the  sinner  to  come  before  him  in  peace,  without  the 
law  being  completely  satisfied,  and  guilt  atoned  for  by  suffer- 
ing equal  to  its  desert.  At  the  same  time,  the  altar  was  a 
sign  of  peace  and  good  will  to  men  j  because  while  it  taught 
that  justice  must  be  satisfied  before  God  could  be  reconciled 
to  the  sinner,  it  declared  also,  that  the  satisfaction  was  pro- 
vided without  expense  to  man — that  the  necessary  atonement 
was  secured — that  the  wrath  of  Heaven,  which,  left  to  light 
upon  his  own  head,  must  crush  him  downward  in  eternal  death, 
had  found  for  itself  another  victim;  and  thus  God  could  be 
just,  while  he  threw  open  a  way  for  the  guilty  to  draw  ne'  r 
to  his  throne  and  be  restored  to  his  favour.  In  this  way,  the 
obstacle  that  shut  up  the  way  of  life,  and  the  removal  of  that 
obstacle  by  infinite  grace,  were  at  once  presented  to  view. 
The  blood-stained  altar,  with  its  dark  column  of  smoke  soaring 
on  high,  was  a  standing  monument  of  God's  unyielding  justice, 
ind  yet  a  standing  memorial  of  his  victorious  mercy ;  clothed 
with  severity  and  terror,  yet  the  significant  pledge  of  goodness, 
friendship  and  peace. 

"  This  Brazen  Altar,"  to  use  the  words  of  a  learned  and 
holy  man,  'was  a  tjpe  of  Christ  dying  to  make  atonement 
for  our  sins.  The  >r<>»,l  had  been  consumed  by  the  fire  from 
oeaven,  if  it  had  not  been  secured  by  the  Imis*;  n»r  could  the 
kuman  nature  of  Christ  have  borne  the  wrath  of  God,  if  it  had 


T^LICiL    ANTIQUITIES.  265 

uot  been  s^pOTtetl  by  a  divine  power.  Christ  sanctified  him- 
self for  his  cb*Kcb,  as  their  altar,  (John  xvii.  19,)  and  by  bis 
mediation  sanctifies  the  daily  services  of  his  people  who  also 
have  '  a  right  to  eat  of  this  altar/  (Heb.  xiii.  10,)  for  they 
st-jve  at  it  as  spiritual  priests.  To  the  horns  of  this  altar  poor 
sinners  fly  for  refuge,  when  justice  pursues  them,  and  there 
tli. y  arc  «afe  in  the  virtue  of  the  sacrifice  there  offered." 

"2.  T/it  I'razen  Laver  stood  between  the  altar  of  burnt-offer- 
ing and  tbe  door  of  thft  tabernacle.  The  name  which  it  has 
in  the  original  language  of  the  Bible,  implies  that  it  was  round 
in  its  shape,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  its  pattern 
was  followed  in  the  general  form  of  the  much  larger  one  which 
was  made  for  the  teinyle  afterwards,  and  called  a  molten  sea; 
this,  we  are  told,  was  round  all  about.  The  laver,  therefore, 
was  a  circular  vesse',  rounded  toward  the  bottom,  it  seems,  after 
the  manner  of  an  urn  or  a  tea-cup,  so  as  to  rest  upon  a  single 
foot  at  its  base  helow.  It  must  have  been  of  considerable 
size,  but  we  are  not  informed  what  were  its  dimensions.  It 
was  for  holding  water,  which  was  required  to  be  kept  constantly 
in  it,  for  the  priests  to  wash  their  hands  and  feet  with,  when 
they  went  into  the  tabernacle,  or  when  they  came  near  the 
altar  to  minister  before  the  Lord.  This  they  were  solemnly 
charged  never  to  neglect;  they  shall  wash  thf/r  linnd*  <ui<l  f<-<t, 
was  the  injunction  of  God,  tint  ////_//  </tc  nut.  There  were 
spouts  or  cocks  by  which  the  water  might  be  let  out  through 
the  lower  part  of  the  vessel,  as  it  was  wanted  for  use.  The 
Jews  say,  that  the  laver  stood  near  the  entrance  of  the  taber- 
nacle, so,  however,  as  not  to  be  directly  between  it  and  tho 
altar,  but  a  little  off"  toward  the  south  side.  They  tell  us,  too, 
that  fresh  water  was  put  into  it  every  morning.  (Ex.  xxx. 
18— 21,xxxviii.  8.) 

The  washing  of  the  body,  in  the  outward  service  of  the  an- 
cient sanctuary  was  intended  to  teach  the  necessity  of  iuward 
purity  in  all  who  would  draw  near  to  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
(Ps.  xxvi.  (5,  Ixvi.  18.)  Thus  the  apostle  exhorts  believers  to 
draw  near  to  God  with  a  true  heart,  in  full  assurance  of  faith, 
having  "their  hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience,  and 
their  bodies  vashed  with  pure  water."  (Heb.  x.  22.)  So  we 
need  to  be  washed  every  day,  and  are  required  every  day  to 
come  with  repentance  and  faith  to  Christ,  that  we  may  bo 
cleansed  from  guilt,  and  so  fitted  to  come  before  the  Lord 
with  an  acceptable  service.  (James  iv.  8,  1  John  i.  7 — 10.) 
More  especially,  the  laver  was,  moreover,  a  continual  sign  that 
the  nature  of  man  had  become  polluted,  and  that  until  the  pol- 
.ution  was  entirely  taken  away,  it  could  find  QO  entrance  iutc 


266  BIBLICAL    ANT1QUITIK8. 

hoaven.  As  on  the  altar  the  eye  of  faith  might  behold,  as  it 
wore,  this  inscription,  without  shedding  ->f  l>l<»><l  '/«•/•/•  />•  no  re> 
mi.txinii  •  so,  also,  it  might  read  upon  the  lavcr,  tritln.ut  holi- 
ness HO  man  shall  see  the  Lord.  It  is  not  enough  that  sacrifice 
and  atonement  are  made  for  sin,  50  as  to  satisfy  the  law ;  the 
soul  needs  at  the  same  time  to  be  delivered  from  its  deep-rootou 
power,  to  be  washed  from  its  dark-coloured  stain — to  be  sanc- 
tified as  well  as  justified,  and  so  made  meet  for  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  light.  A  laver,  therefore,  as  well  as  an  altar, 
was  planted  out  before  the  tabernacle ;  and  it  stood  bet ir ten 
ihe  altar  and  the  sanctuary,  showing  that  pardon  through  the 
Great  Sacrifice  is  the  first  benefit  which  the  believer  ]•••<•• 
and  that  this  is  followed  by  the  complete  saiu-tification  of  his 
nature,  before  he  passes  into  the  House  not  made  with  hands 
on  high.  Thus  the  laver  also  was  a  symbol  of  ri«-h  mercy. 
While  it  forcibly  called  to  mind  the  deep  depravity  nf  the  soul, 
and  presented  before  it  the  alarming  truth,  that  in  its  native 
character,  or  while  one  spot  of  its  pollution  remained,  it  could 
never  see  God ;  it  gave  assurance  at  the  same  time,  that  this 
great  purification  was  not  an  object  of  despair,  as  it  must  have 
been  if  left  for  man  to  accomplish  by  his  own  power,  but  that 
the  grace  of  God  had  made  provision  for  it  altogether  sufficient 
and  sure — that  a.  fountain  for  the  uncl'-diinrts  <>fsin  was  won- 
derfully secured,  by  the  same  love  that  procured  redemption 
from  its  guilt,  in  which  the  soul  might  be  made  as  white  as 
if  it  had  never  been  defiled  with  the  smallest  stain.  ^Kjili.  v. 
26,  27,  Rev.  i.  5,  vii.  14.) 

We  are  now  ready  to  move  the  curtain  aside,  and  enter  with- 
in the  holy  place,  the  first  apartment  of  the  sanctuary.  No 
window,  or  opening  of  any  sort  was  provided  in  the  tabernacle, 
to  let  in  the  light  of  day  ;  but  this  room  was  never  dark.  Night 
and  day  it  was  brightly  lighted  with  burning  lamps.  All  its 
furniture,  therefore,  was  clearly  exposed  to  view,  as  soon  as  it 
was  entered.  This  consisted  of  only  three  principal  articles; 
the  altar  of  incense,  the  table  of  shew-bread,  and  the  candle- 
stick from  which  the  light  proceeded.  It  was  not  allowed, 
however,  for  a  common  Israelite  to  enter  into  this  sacred  tenL 
and  behold  its  furniture:  no  one  but  a  priest  might  pass  the 
outer  veil  and  go  in  even  so  far  as  the  first  apartment. 

3.  The  Golden  CawlUstlck  was  placed  on  the  south  side  of 
the  holy  place,  so  as  t>  be  to  the  left  of  any  person  when  he 
came  into  the  roonTby  the  middle  of  the  entrance.  It  wan 
iniidc  entirely  of  pure  gold.  It  consisted  of  a  slmft  or  princi- 
pal stem  rising  upright  from  a  suitaM"  base,  and  six  branches. 
These  branchea  started  out  at  three  different  points  from  the 


Supposed  Torn)  of  the  (folden  Candlestick. 


P.2B7. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  26} 

main  stein,  and  turned  upward  with  a  regular  Dcnd,  so  as  to 
reach  the  same  height  with  it.  From  each  point  went  out  two, 
one  directly  opposite  to  the  other,  and  those  above  went  out 
oxactly  in  the  same  direction  with  those  below ;  thus  all  were 
in  the  same  range,  three  on  one  side,  and  three  just  over 
against  them  on  another — the  lower  ones  bending  round  in  a 
larger  curve,  and  the  upper  ones  in  a  less,  so  as  to  bring  all 
their  tops  to  the  same  height,  and  in  the  same  line,  at  equal 
distances  one  from  another.  The  stem  and  each  nf  »he 
branches  were  adorned  with  artificial  bowls,  knops  and  flowers. 
The  size  of  the  candlestick  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  but 
the  Jewish  tradition  is,  that  it  was  as  much  as  five  fefft  high, 
and  three  and  a  half  along  the  top,  from  the  outmost  branch 
on  one  side  to  the  outmost  branch  on  the  other.  Eajh  of  these 
seven  tops,  of  the  branches  and  their  common  stem,  was  made 
to  terminate  in  a  lamp.  Connected  with  the  candlestick  were 
t-untjs  and  ,mujf-di  sites,  all  made  of  gold;  also  oiV-mW.s  for  use 
in  iilling  the  lamps.  The  tongs  were  made  probably  after  the 
fashion  of  scissors,  to  clip  off  the  snuff,  when  it  was  immediate- 
ly dropped  into  the  snuff -dishes.  (Ex.  xxv.  31 — 39.) 

The  lamps  were  supplied  with  the  purest  olive  oil ;  such  as 
was  procured,  not  by  the  common  way  of  pressing  it  out,  but 
by  bruising  or  beating  the  olives  while  yet  somewhat  green,  in 
a  mortar.  The  priests  were  required  to  take  care  that  the 
candlestick  was  never  without  light.  Every  day  its  lamps 
were  to  be  examined,  and  dressed,  and  supplied  with  oil,  as 
they  might  need.  The  Jews  say,  that  only  three  of  the  lamps 
w< •)•<•  kept  burning  through  the  day,  but  that  all  of  them  were 
liirliti-d  in  the  evening,  to  burn  during  the  night. 

The  light  of  this  candlestick  was  symbolical  of  the  spiritual 
knowledge  which  God  communicates  to  his  people  through  his 
word,  the  Bible,  and  by  the  enlightening  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  law  of  the  Lord  is  a  glorious  light  set  up  in  the 
church.  (Ps.  xix.  8,  cxix.  105,  130,  Prov.  vi.  23.)  In  it  life 
and  imrmirttiHty  arc  (>r»n;//if  to  liyht,  and  truth  revealed  that 
guides  the  soul  to  heaven  :  it  unfolds  the  knowledge  of  God, 
and  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  True  Light  of  a  world  made  dark  and 
desolate  by  sin.  (John  i.  4 — 9,  viii.  12.)  But  all  this  light 
shines  without  being  comjtrchcnded  or  perceived  by  the  natural 
mind  of  man.  A  divine  influence  is  needed  to  open  a  way  for 
it  through  the  midst  of  the  thick  darkness  that  is  in  him  by 
reason  of  sin,  and  to  introduce  it  fairly  and  effectually  to  \\\t 
vi.-\v.  Such  an  influence  of  mercy  is  exerted  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  "  lie  shines  into  the  hearts"  of  all  who  are  saved, 
"  to  give  them  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  Go<) 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  (1  Cor.  ii.  10 — 12,  2  Cor.  IT 
4 — 6.)  This  enlightening  agency,  the  source  of  all  true  wis 
dora  to  man,  was  that  which  was  particularly  signified  by  the 
candlestick  with  its  seven  lamps  shining  before  the  Mo-t  Holy 
place.  Thus  we  are  taught  by  divine  revelation  itself,  in  tlio 
Vision  of  John,  the  apostle,  "  There  were  seven  lamps  of  fir-j 
burning  before  the  throne,  which  are  the  sewn  sjii'n'r*  <>f  God" 
(Rev.  iv.  5,  i.  4.)  The  number  seven  denotes  perfection — com- 
plete sufficiency  in  every  way,  and  fulness  in  all  respects,  ac- 
cording to  the  nature  of  the  thing  spoken  of. 

4.  %/ie  Tabl".  of  8lirir.l,ri><t.l  was  placed  over  against  the 
candlestick,  on  the  north  side  of  the  apartment,  so  as  to  be  to 
the  right  of  the  priest  when  he  walked  up  toward  the  second 
veil.  It  was  made  of  shittim  wood,  and  was  two  cubits  long, 
a  jubit  broad,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half  high.  It  was  overlaid 
with  gold,  and  had  round  the  edge  of  its  top,  or  leaf,  an  orna- 
mental rim  of  gold,  called  its  crown ;  and  just  under  this,  aa 
it  seems,  the  frame  was  compassed  about  with  a  bonier,  a  hand- 
breadth  broad,  which  was  crowned  with  a  similar  rim.  It  was 
provided  with  vessels  for  different  kinds  of  service,  which  are 
called  in  the  English  translation,  </is/trs,  spoons,  covers  an*t 
bowls,  to  cover  withal.  The  dixhcs,  there  is  reason  to  believe, 
were  broad  plates  on  which  the  shew-bread  was  placed :  what 
are  called  spoons,  seem  rather  to  have  been  vessel*  in  wliieh 
incense  was  kept,  (Num.  vii.  14,  20,  86 ;)  incense  wo  know 
was  used  on  the  table,  (Lev.  xxiv.  7;)  what  are  named  >•,,,;/•.< 
and  bowls,  appear  to  have  been  two  different  sorts  of  vessels 
for  holding  wine;  the  first  large,  in  which  a  continual  supply 
of  it  was  kept,  and  the  second  smaller  in  size,  which  were  filled 
from  the  others,  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  drink-ofieriagl 
before  the  Lord — so  their  use,  instead  of  being  to  cover  withal, 
was.  it  is  most  probable,  to  j»»t/-  out  trit/mt,  according  to  the 
moie  common  signification  of  the  word.  (Ex.  xxv.  23—30.) 

Twelve  loaves  of  unleavened  bread  were  continually  kept 
upon  the  table.  They  were  placed  in  two  piles,  one  loaf  upon 
another,  and  on  the  top  of  each  pile  there  was  put  a  small 
quantity  of  pure  frankincense.  They  were  called  sh<'u--br«i<l, 
or  the  bread  of  the  face,  because  they  were  set  solemnly  bef  >iv 
the  Presence  of  the  Lord  as  it  dwelt  in  glory  behind  the  second 
^fil.  Every  Sabbath  day,  the  loaves  were  changed  by  the 
I  riertts — the  old  ones  taken  away  and  the  new  ones  put  in  their 
place.  The  1  read  that  was  taken  away  was  given  to  the  priests 
U)  eat,  and  no  person  else  was  allowed  to  taste  it ;  ncithei  wore 
they  suffered  to  eat  it  anywhere  else  except  within  the  court 
of  the  sanctuary  :  because  it  was  most  holy,  it  was  to  be  eaten 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  269 

jmy  by  sacred  persons,  and  only  upon  holy  groind.  The  in- 
tense that  was  on  the  piles  was  still  burnt ;  when  the  bread 
was  changed,  as  an  offering  by  fire  unto  the  Lord,  far  a  memo- 
rial instead  of  (lie  bread,  or  an  acknowledgment  that  all  be- 
longed to  him,  while  the  greater  part  was,  by  his  permission, 
consigned  to  the  use  of  his  servants.  (Lev.  xxiv.  5—9.) 
David,  on  a  certain  occasion,  when  he  was  an  hungered  to- 
gether with  those  that  were  with  him,  and  no  other  bread  could 
be  procured,  did  not  hesitate  to  eat  the  shew-bread  that  had 
been  removed  from  the  sanctuary.  (1  Sam.  xxi.  1 — 6,  Matt, 
rii.  3,  4.) 

"  As  the  Ark,"  says  one,  "  signified  the  presence  of  God  in 
his  church,  so  this  table  with  the  twelve  cakes  signified  the 
multitude  of  the  faithful  presented  unto  God  in  his  church,  as 
upon  a  pure  table,  continually  serving  him  :  made  by  faith  and 
holiness  as  fine  cakes,  and  by  the  mediation  of  Christ,  as  by 
incense,  made  a  sweet  odour  unto  God."  Thus  each  loaf  re- 
presented a  tribe.  There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  that 
while  it  may  be  considered  to  have  been  a  continual  thankful 
acknowledgment  of  God's  goodness  in  providing  for  his  people 
their  daily  food,  this  jwpclual  bread  was  more  especially  de- 
signed to  be  a  symbol  of  the  never-failing  provision  which  he 
has  made  in  the  church  for  the  spiritual  nourishment  and  re- 
freshment of  all  the  truly  pious.  In  the  words  of  the  writer 
quoted  a  short  time  since,  it  was  "  a  type  of  the  spiritual  pro- 
vision which  is  made  in  the  church,  by  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
for  all  that  are  made  priests  to  our  God.  In  our  Father's  house, 
t/iere  is  bread  enough,  and  to  spare;  a  loaf  for  every  tribe. 
All  that  attend  in  God's  house  shall  be  abundantly  satisfied 
with  the  goodness  of  it.  (Ps.  xxxvi.  8.)  Divine  consolations 
are  the  continual  feast  of  holy  souls ;  however,  there  are  those, 
to  whom  the.  table  cf  the  Lord,  and  the  meat  Hereof,  because 
it  is  plain  bread,  is  contemptible.  (Mai.  i.  12.)  Christ  hath 
a  table  in  hix  kint/i/»,n,  at  which  all  his  saints  shall  for  ever 
eat  and  drink  with  him."  (Luke  xxii.  29,  30.) 

5.  The  Altar  of  Incense,  OY  the  Golden  Altar,  was  situate 
between  the  Table  s*nd  the  Candlestick,  so  as  to  stand  very 
near  to  the  second  veil,  equally  distant  from  both  sides  of  the 
tabernacle.  "Thou  shalt  put  it,"  was  the  direction  of  the 
Lord,  "bef  )re  the  veil  that  is  by  the  ark  of  the  testimony  be- 
fore the  mercy-seat  that  is  over  the  testimony,  where  I  will 
oieet  with  thee."  It  was  a  cubit  long,  a  cubit  broad,  and  twn 
uubits  high;  made  of  shittim  wood,  and  ovej.aid  with  gold, 
not  only  upon  every  side,  but  also  over  the  top ;  furnished 
tour  Imrns  all  tverlaid  in  like  manner,  and  eompasseo 

23* 


270  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

round  about  ita  upper  surface  with  an  ornamental  crown,  ot 
border,  of  the  same  precious  metal.  No  flesh  ever  burned 
upon  this  t-iltar;  nor  was  it  ever  touched  with  blood,  except 
on  the  most  solemn  occasions;  and  then  its  horns  alone  were 
marked  with  the  crimson  stain.  The  smoke  that  rose  from  its 
top  was  never  any  other  than  the  smoke  of  burning  incense." 
This  went  up  every  morning  and  every  evening,  filling  the 
sanctuary  with  its  fragrant  cloud,  and  sending  a  refreshing 
odour  out  through  all  the  court  and  far  over  the  country  on 
every  side  for  miles  beyond.  Because  it  was  thus  renewed 
every  day,  it  was  called  a  perpetual  ///<•<•«>•>  l»  fore  the  Lord. 
It  was  not  simple  frankincense  that  was  burnt,  but  a  compound 
of  this  with  other  sweet  spices,  made  according  to  the  particular 
direction  of  God  for  this  special  purpose,  and  so  considered 
holy,  such  as  no  man  was  allowed  to  make  any  like  unto  for 
common  use.  (Ex  xxx.  34 — 38.)  The  priest  was  charged 
never  to  offer  strange  incense,  that  is,  any  other  than  the 
sacred  composition,  upon  the  golden  altar. 

The  pious  writer,  from  whom  some  remarks  on  the  meaning 
of  the  other  altar  have  been  lately  borrowed,  observes  : — "  This 
incense-altar  typified,  1.  Theme^lutimi  nf  C/trinf.  The  brazen 
altar  in  the  court  was  a  type  of  Christ  dying  on  earth;  the 
golden  altar  in  the  sanctuary  was  a  type  of  Christ  intenv<lin_' 
in  heaven,  in  the  virtue  of  his  satisfaction.  This  altar  w.i^ 
before  the  mercy-seat;  for  Christ  always  appears  in  the  pre- 
sence of  God  for  us — he  is  our  advocate  with  the  Father, 
(1  John  ii.  1 ;)  and  his  intercession  is  unto  God  of  a  sweet 
smelling  savour.  '_'.  Tin  ,1,  /v,//V///.s  »f  f/«  >•<»////>•,  whose  prayers 
an  said  to  be  set  forth  before  God  as  'incense.'  (Ps.  cxli.'J.)  A- 
the  smoke  of  the  incense  ascended.  >o  must  our  desires  toward 
God  rise  in  prayer,  being  kindled  with  the  fire  of  holy  love 
and  other  pious  affections.  When  the  priest  was  burning  in- 
cense, the  people  were  praying,  (Luke  i.  10,)  to  signify  that 
prayer  is  the  true  incense.  This  incense  was  offered  daily  ;  it 
was  a  ji'fjH-ti/t/f  iiii-rn*,- ;  for  we  mn-t  />rny  nlirni/n,  that  is,  we 
must  keep  up  stated  times  for  prayer  ct->  /•//  //,/_//.  morning  and 
evening,  at  least,  and  n*  rer  omit  it,  but  thus  pray  without 
ceasing.  The  lamps  were  dre.ssed  or  lighted  at  the  same  time 
that  the  incense  was  burnt,  to  teach  us,  that  the  read  ing  of  the 
Scriptures,  (which  are  our  light  and  lamp,)  is  a  part  of  our 
daily  work,  and  should  ordinarily  accompany  our  prayers  and 
praises  When  we  speak  to  God,  we  must  hear  what  Godsaith 
to  us;  and  thus  the  communion  is  complete.  The  devotion;? 
of  sanctified  souls  are  well-pleasing  to  God,  of  a  sweet-smelling 
savour;  the  prayers  of  the  saints  arc  compared  to  '  swee< 


Probable  form  of  tbo  Altar  of  Incen?«. 


p.  27a 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  271 

odours.'  (Rev  v.  8,)  but  it  is  the  incense  which  Christ  adds  to 
them  that  makes  them  '  acceptable,'  (Rev.  viii.  3,)  and  his  blood 
that  atones  for  the  guilt  which  cleaves  to  our  best  services. 
And  if  toe  heart  and  life  be  not  holy,  even  the  incense  is  an 
abomination,  and  he  that  offers  it  is  'as  if  he  blessed  an  idol.' " 
(Is.  i.  13,  Ixvi.  3.) 

"  This  altar  was  to  be  placed  before  the  veil,  on  the  outside 
of  that  partition,  but  before  the  mercy-seat,  which  was  within 
the  veil.  For  though  he  that  ministered  at  the  altar  could 
not  see  the  mercy-seat,  the  veil  interposing,  yet  he  must  look 
towards  it,  and  direct  his  incense  that  way  :  to  teach  us,  that 
though  we  cannot  with  our  bodily  eyes  see  the  throne  of  grace, 
that  blessed  mercy-seat,  for  it  is  such  a  throne  of  glory,  that 
God,  in  compassion  to  us,  holdefh  back  the  face  of  it,  and 
fpreadeth  a  clowl  upon  it;  yet  we  must  in  prayer  by  faith  set 
ourselves  before  it,  direct  our  prayer  and  look  up." 

While  the  incense  was  burning,  it  was  customary  for  all  the 
people,  as  many  as  were  standing  without  before  the  sanctuary, 
to  put  up  prayers  to  God,  every  one  silently  by  himself.  It 
was  understood  that  the  holy  offering  was  significant  of  that 
spiritual  service  of  adoration  and  holy  desire  which  God  should 
receive  from  every  heart.  It  was  understood  too,  by  the  se- 
rious believer,  that  there  was  something  more  signified  by  it  : 
the  incense,  presented  by  the  priest,  and  rising  pure  and  ac- 
ceptable to  God  most  Holy,  from  off  the  golden  altar,  repre- 
sented to  his  faith  prayer  made  efficacious  and  well-pleasi/jgby 
something  added  to  it  to  bear  it  upward  and  recommend  it 
before  the  throne ;  he  frit  that  his  prayers  in  themselves  were 
too  feeble  and  impure  to  come  up  with  acceptance  befr  .vs  the 
Lord,  and  saw  with  gratitude,  in  the  symbol  of  the  sanctuary, 
a  divine  assurance  that  provision  was  mide  to  remedy  -he  de- 
fect :  the  nature  and  manner  of  the  \  revision  he  co\  Id  not 
indeed  comprehend,  but  still  he  reposed  confidence  in  its  cer- 
tainty, and  by  grace  was  enabled,  through  the  sign,  to  lay 
hold  of  its  consolation  and  benefit.  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
and  certainly  proper,  to  feel  that  the  time  of  the  goin;r  up  of 
the  morning  and  the  evening  incense  was  peculiarly  suitable  t 
be  employed  in  prayer,  and  that  there  was  an  advantage  in  di 
reeling  the  desires  of  the  heart  toward  heaven  at  the  very  moment 
that  the  fragrant  cloud  was  rising  from  the  altar ;  not  becauso 
the  incense  in  itself  could  give  value  to  any  prayer,  much  less 
sanctify  a  hypocritical  one,  but  because  it  was  a  divinely  ap- 
pointed ordinance  admirably  adapted  to  encourage  and  assist 
faith  and  devotion  by  its  typical  meaning.  Many  pious  per- 
sons accordingly,  who  lived  in  Jerusalem,  used  often  to  go  up 


272  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

to  the'  temple ,  (which  took,  we  know,  the  place  of  the  '.aber- 
uacle,)  at  these  particular  seasons,  to  put  up  prayers  \n-f<>\>>. 
God's  holy  house  while  the  priest  was  ministering  at  the  golden 
altar  Hence  there  was  commonly  a  great  multitude  standing 
m  the  different  courts  of  the  temple  at  such  times.  Win 'ii 
the  priest  went  into  the  holy  place  to  perfenl  the  service, 
notice  was  giveL  by  striking  a  great  instrument  that  sounded 
like  a  bell,  and  might  be  heard  all  over  Jerusalem ;  and  then 
immediately  the  priests  that  were  without,  the  Levites.  and 
the  whole  multitude,  addressed  themselves  in  deep  and  solemn 
silence  to  the  business  of  devotion.  Thus  it  was  on  that  me- 
morable occasion  when  Zacharias  ministered  in  the  sanctuary, 
and  suddenly  beheld  the  angel  Gabriel  standing  close  beside 
him  on  the  right  side  of  the  altar.  (Luke  i.  8 — '2'2.) 

We  are  now  prepared  to  look  into  the  second  apartment  of 
Jhe  tabernacle — the  Most  Holy  place.  Beyond  the  second  veil 
no  mortal  might  ever  pass  but  the  high  priest;  and  only  on 
one  great  occasion  in  each  year  was  it  lawful  even  for  him  to 
do  so;  and  then,  only  with  the  most  solemn  preparation  and 
the  most  reverential  care.  The  holiest  of  all  was  clot  lied  with 
the  solemnity  of  another  world,  and  filled  with  unearthly  gran- 
deur. The  whole  tabernacle  was  the  sanctuary  of  (!od.  Imt 
here  was  the  awful  residence  of  his  PRESENCE — the  s[>  ••< -ial 
dwelling-place  of  his  visible  glory.  Well  might  sinful  man 
tremble  to  move  aside  the  veil,  and  present  himself  within  s<i 
holy  a  place. 

6.  At  the  extreme  of  the  apartment,  the  western  end  of  the 
whole  tabernacle,  rested  the  .1/7.-  «f  (/>••  ' ""i;  mint.  It  was  in 
form  a  box,  a  cubit  and  a  half  broad  and  high,  and  tw;i  cubits 
and  a  half  long,  made  of  shittim  wood,  and  covered  within  and 
without  with  the  purest  gold.  Like  the  table  of  shew  !T  id 
and  the  golden  altar,  it  was  crowned  with  an  ornamental  harder 
or  rim,  round  about  its  top.  Above  upon  it  was  the  »>•  //•//- 
seat.  This  was  made  of  solid  gold  of  the  best  sort,  exact  h 
answering  in  length  and  breadth  to  the  ark,  on  which  it  re>t.'d 
as  a  flat  cover  or  lid,  so  as  c  inpletely  to  close  it  over.  On 
each  end  of  it  was  fixed  a  ch*ml>,  wrought  in  like  manner,  of 
pure  solid  gold,  rising  above  it,  and  overshadowing  it  with 
wings  stretched  forth  on  high.  The  faces  of  these  sacred 
figures  were  turned  toward  each  other,  bending  somewhat  down- 
wards towards  the  mercy-seat,  on  which  they  stoou.  IJetween 
these  cherubim  dwelt  the  uncreated  glory  of  God.  "  There." 
He  said  to  Moses,  "  I  will  meet  with  thee,  and  I  will  commune 
with  thee  from  above  the  mercv-seat,  iVoiu  between  the  two 
rherubim  whieh  are  upon  the  ark  of  the  testimony." 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  273 

In  this  ark  Moses  was  required  to  put  the  two  tables  of 
atone  on  which  the  ten  comirandments  were  written  with  the 
finger  of  God.  These  were  called  the  testimony,  because  they 
were  the  testimony,  or  evidence  and  witness,  of  the  covenant 
between  God  and  the  Israelites;  whence  the  ark  was  styled 
sometimes  the  ark  of  the  testimony,  and  sometimes  the  ark  of 
the  covenant.  We  are  expressly  told,  that  the  ark  contained 
nothing  besides  these  tables.  (1  Kings  viii.  9.)  By  the  side 
of  it,  however,  that  is,  at  one  end,  in  a  coffer  it  seems,  made 
for  the  purpose,  there  was  deposited  a  copy  of  the  five  books 
of  Moses,  while  a  golden  pot  full  of  manna,  and  Aaron's  rod 
that  budded,  were  laid  up  as  memorials  before  it.  (Ex.  xvi. 
32 — 34,  Numb.  xvii.  10,  Deut.  xxxi.  26.  The  apostle  Paul 
nevertheless  seems  to  say,  that  the  golden  pot  and  the  rod 
were  in-  the  inside  of  the  ark  itself,  with  the  tables  of  the  cove- 
nant. (Heb.  ix.  4.)  Either  we  must  understand  him  to  mean 
simply,  that  these  things  belonged  to  it,  and  were  laid  up  for 
security  beside  it;  or  else  we  must  suppose,  that  they  were 
really  placed  within  the  ark  at  first,  but  afterwards  were 
taken  out  by  some  presumptuous  hand,  and  so  lost,  during  its 
captivity  and  unsettled  condition,  before  it  was  carried  into 
Solomon's  temple  : — at  which  time,  we  are  told  in  the  p 
referred  to  above,  "there  was  nothing  in  it  save  the  two  tables 
of  stone  which  Moses  put  there  at  Horcb." 

What  was  the  particular  form  and  appearance  of  the  cheru- 
bim over  the  ark,  we  are  not  told.  In  the  first  chapter  of 
Ezekiel  a  description  is  given  of  four  living  creatures,  as  they 
appeared  to  the  prophet  in  vision,  which  supported  the  throne 
of  God,  and  bore  it  in  majesty  from  place  to  place.  Each  <>f 
them  had  four  faces,  the  face  of  an  ox,  the  face  of  a  lion,  the 
face  of  an  eagle,  and  the  face  of  a  man ;  all  attached  to  a  body 
resembling  that  of  a  man,  wh  ?h  was  furnished  with  four  wings, 
together  with  hands  such  as  wen  have,  under  them,  and  stood 
upon  feet  like  those  of  a  calf.  These  are  called  cherubim. 
(Ez.  x.  15,  20.)  Some  have  imagined,  that  the  appearance 
which  they  are  represented  to  have  had,  was  the  common  and 
proper  appearance  that  belonged  to  all  figures  of  cherubim ; 
and  so,  of  course,  that  we  are  to  consider  those  which  stood 
over  the  mercy-seat  to  have  been  made  after  the  same  fashion. 
But  it  seems  more  natural,  from  the  account  that  is  given  of 
these  last,  to  suppose  that  they  had  each  only  a  single  fan- ; 
for  it  is  said  that  their  faces  were  made  to  look  one  toward  an- 
other, which  could  not  well  be  if  they  had  moro  than  one  a 
piece.  No  intimation  is  given,  either,  that  these  had  moiv 
than  two  wings,  though  it  is  not  asserted  that  they  hail  <>ulj 


274  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIIS. 

the  one  pair,  .and  may  be  imagined,  that,  while,  they  stretched 
these  before  them,  so  as  to  meet  over  tin  .-anvil  covering  of 
the  ark,  they  were  furnished  with  others  to  cover  the  lower 
parts  of  their  bodies,  in  token  of  reverence  and  humility.  (Lsa 
vi.  2,  Rev.  iv.  8.) 

It  appears  most  probable,  therefore,  that  the  cherubim  men 
tioned  in  Scripture  were  not,  in  every  case,  of  the  same  form. 
We  are  not  to  imagine,  that  in  any  case  their  figure  ami  HJ>- 
pcanince  were  such  as  actually  belong  to  any  kind  of  existing 
creatures.  They  were  mere  emblems,  intruded  to  represent 
something  else  by  symbolical  signs,  whether  seen  in  vision,  as 
they  appeared  to  Ezekiel  and  to  the  apostle  John,  or  fnrmed 
by  art,  as  they  were  for  the  tabernacle  and  the  temple.  They 
appear  evidently  to  have  been  designed  to  represent  the  hdy 
angels,  who  attend  continually  before  the  throne  of  Qod,  an  1 
delight  to  perform  his  will.  Their  wings  signified  the  readi- 
ness and  swiftness  with  which  they  execute  the  Divine  e<>m- 
mauds.  Their  faces,  which  seem  always  to  have  been  one  or 
more  of  those  four  that  have  been  mentioned,  denoted  wi>.l»ni 
and  power,  activity  and  irresistible  strength.  Those  which 
Ezekiel  and  John  saw,  were  full  of  eyes,  to  express  the  great 
knowledge  that  belongs  to  the  ministering  spirits  of  hea\en. 
the  quickness  of  understanding  with  which  they  receive  every 
intimation  of  God's  most  holy  pleasure,  and  the  clear,  unerring 
certainty  with  which  they  instantly  move  to  carry  it  into  ac- 
complishment. (Ezek.  x.  12,  Rev.  iv.  6 — 8.)  To  present  still 
more  significantly  their  characters  as  mix />•//•/•/«//  .SV/-/V///A-.-,  and 
to  emblem,  at  the  same  time,  the  unutterable  grandeur  of  the 
Divine  Majesty,  they  were  represented  as  bearing  the  Almighty 
with  immeasurable  speed  wherever  it  was  his  will  to  go.  In 
the  vision  of  the  prophet,  la  saw,  stretched  forth  over  the 
heads  of  the  cherubim  above,  the  likeness  of  a  firmament  as 
the  colour  of  the  terrible  crystal ;  and  above  upon  the  firma- 
ment, was  the  appearance  of  the  likeness  oftfie  ulory  of  Jehovah, 
throned  in  magnificent  splendour.  The  cherubim  lifted  up 
their  wings,  when  directed,  and  bore  the  whole  whithersoever 
the  Spirit  was  to  go,  with  movement  of  awful  sublimity  ;  when 
they  went,  the  noise  of  their  wings  was  like  the  noise  of  great 
waters,  as  the  voice  of  the  Almighty,  the  voice  '/f  speech,  as 
the  noise  of  a  host !  In  another  magnificent  description  of  the 
majesty  and  power  of  the  Most  High,  it  is  said ;  "  He  rode 
tpon  a  cherub,  and  did  fly ;  yea,  he  did  fly  upon  the  wings  of 
ie  wind!"  (Ps.  xviii.  10.) 

The   Glory  of  the  Lord  visibly  displayed  above  the  mercy 
*at  was  in  the  appearance  of  a  cloud.     "  The  Lord  said  unto 


BJBLICML    ANTIQUITIES.  275 

Moses,  speak  unto  Aaron,  thy  brother,  that  he  come  nf»t  at  all 
times  int<j  the  holy  place  within  the  veil,  before  the  mercy -scat 
which  is  upon  the  ark;  that  he  die  not:  for  I  will  appear  in 
t/if  cloud  upon  ttte  mercy-seat."  (Lev.  xvi.  2.)  This  manifes- 
tation of  the  Divine  Presence  was  called,  among  the  Jews,  the 
Shechinah.  Its  appearance  was  attended,  no  doubt,  with  an 
".n-ff/cnl  glory,  of  which  we  can  form  no  proper  conception, 
ind  such  as  it  was  exceedingly  awful  for  dying,  sinful  man  tc 
Jook  upon.  Out  of  this  cloud,  the  voice  of  God  was  uttered 
with  deep  solemnity,  when  he  was  consulted  in  behalf  of  the 
people,  so  as  to  be  heard  through  the  veil  in  the  Holy  Place. 
(Num.  vii.  89.)  This  was  the  appointed  way  of  holding  direct 
intercourse  with  the  Holy  One  of  Israel;  "There  I  will  meet 
with  thee,"  was  his  declaration,  "  and  I  will  commune  with 
thce  from  above  the  mercy-seat."  There  is  some  reason  to 
think,  that  it  was  on  this  account  the  tabernacle  was  called,  ai 
times,  the  Tabernacle  of  meeting,  (translated,  also,  Tabernacle 
of  the  congregation  :)  this  name,  however,  may  have  been 
given  to  it,  because  it  was  the  great  centre  of  worship  round 
which  the  congregation  was  wont  to  be  assembled.  From  the 
situation  of  the  glorious  Shechinah,  God  is  spoken  of  as  "  dwell- 
ing between  the  cherubim."  (Ps.  Ixxx.  1,  xcix.  1.)  Hence, 
also,  the  ark  is  represented  as  his  footstool,  above  which  he 
sits,  enthroned  as  it  were,  upon  the  wings  of  the  cherubim. 
(1  Chron.  xxviii.  2,  Ps.  xcix.  5.) 

The  Holiest  of  all  was  a  figure  of  heaven,  where  God 
dwells  in  infinite  and  eternal  glory;  where  his  throne  is  es- 
tablished in  righteousness  and  in  judgment ;  where  thousand 
thousands  and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand,  all  pure  and 
happy  spirits,  minister  before  him,  and  contemplate,  with  ador- 
ing wonder,  the  pecfections  of  his  character,  as  they  unfold 
upon  their  vision,  with  ever  new  discovery,  ago  after  age,  with- 
out end.  Thus  we  are  taught  by  the  apostle  Paul,  in  his  epis- 
tle to  the  Hebrews. 

As  God  was,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  the  king  of  the  Israelitish 
nation,  it  may  not  be  improper,  perhaps,  to  look  upon  the  tal>- 
ernacle  as  being,  in  some  sort,  the  royal  palace  in  which  he 
was  pleased  to  dwell  among  the  people  ;  from  which  he 
his  laws,  and  to  which  his  subjects  were  required  to  come  to 
il>)  him  honour,  presenting  themselves  before  him  with  their 
h<un:i<ift  and  tribute.  In  this  view,  the  priests  also  were  royal 
HIT i-ii nt ^  attending  upon  the  monarch,  and  composing  his  court; 
aii'l  all  the  furniture  of  the  sacred  tent  had  relation  to  the  idea 
of  a  princely  house,  in  which  it  is  common  to  find  full  and  rid 
provision  made  for  comfort  and  convenience  in  every  way 


276  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


Thus  it  wa^  liijlitnl  in  brilliant  and  expensive  style,  as  befitted 
a  palace,  and  furnished  with  a  table  supplied  with  its  various 
utensils,  and  continually  spread  with  provision.  This  idea, 
nowever,  if  it  be  not  utterly  without  reason  or  truth,  enters 
only  secondarily,  and  as  it  were,  accidentally,  into  the  original 
ilrMirii  of  the  tabernacle.  The  analogy  imagined  between  its 
arrangement  and  service,  and  the  manner  of  an  earthly  royal 
court,  is  slight  in  every  case,  and  in  most  particulars  fails  alto- 
gether; so  that  it  is  evident  its  whole  constitution  and  order 
had  regard,  in  the  I/ivine  plan,  to  something  entirely  ditt'm  -nt. 
Its  great  purpose  was  to  present,  symbolically,  the  glorious 
reality  which  the  gospel  unfolds  —  the  mystery  of  mercy  into 
which  angels  desire  to  look,  whereby  God  can  be  just,  while 
he  justifies  the  sinner,  renews  his  intercourse  of  friendship  and 
love  with  a  fallen  rebe)  race,  and  out  of  the  deep  pollution  of 
guilt  and  the  abyss  of  infinite  ruin,  raises  a  multitude  which  no 
man  can  number,  to  mingle  in  spotless  purity  with  the  great 
family  of  Heaven,  where  in  his  presence  there  is  fulness  of  joy 
and  pleasure  for  evermore. 

It  signified,  that  a  fearful  separation  had  taken  place  between 
God  and  the  human  race.  It  represented  God  as  seated  upon 
a  throne  of  holiness,  and  jealous  of  the  honour  of  his  perfect 
laws;  a  being  in  whose  sight  iniquity  can  never  stand,  and 
whose  righteousness  will  by  no  means  clear  tin  //«<'//>/.  It  re- 
presented man  to  be  under  the  condemnation  of  sin  —  polluted, 
ignorant,  helpless  and  lost.  It  was  intimated,  accordingly. 
that  communion,  direct,  free  and  happy,  with  his  Maker, 
such  as  is  granted  to  pure  and  unfallen  spirits,  was,  in  his  case, 
forfeited  completely;  that  sin  had  created  a  hinderance  in  the 
way  of  it,  which  no  power  of  his  was  sufficient  ever  to  remove; 
that  he  was  shut  out  from  the  favour  of  God  ;  that  his  prayer 
could  have  no  regard  in  heaven  ;  that  the  presence  of  the  Al- 
mighty, if  he  were  brought  into  it,  could  be  to  him  only  a  c»n- 
auiiiing  fire,  full  of  terror  and  death.  The  way  into  the  Holiest 
of  all  was  barred  against  approach  with  awful  solemnity. 

At  the  same  time,  it  was  signified,  that  God  had,  with  ann/, 
ing  goodness,  provided  a  remedy  for  the  dreadful  evil,  and  de- 
vised means  to  remove  entirely  the  hinderance,  so  terrific,  that 
rose  to  shut  the  sinner  for  ever  from  his  favour  Indeed,  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  evil  were  displayed  only  in  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  remedy;  the  picture  itself  was,  in  all  n-spect<, 
a  picture  of  mercy;  of  mercy  triumphant  over  sin  and  death  : 
and  it  was  in  the  exhibition  of  the  victory  alone,  that  the 
*erribleness  of  the  difficulty  which  it  had  to  overcome  wa» 
brought  into  view.  God  was  represented  art  seated  upon  tin 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  277 

:nione  of  grace  as  well  as  of  holiness  and  justice :  the  ark, 
while  it  guarded  the  tables  of  the  eternal  law,  was  Covered 
with  the  mercy-seat.  Righteousness  and  mercy,  it  was  inti- 
mated, were  met  together  in  mysterious  union,  such  as  infinite 
wisdom  alone  could  contrive,  and  only  infinite  power  could 
accomplish;  such  as  fills  all  heaven  with  adoration  and 
wonder,  and  causes  angels  to  bend  forward,  as  it  were,  with 
the  most  earnest  interest,  to  contemplate  its  unspeakable  glory. 
(1  Pet.  i.  12,  Rev.  v.  11 — 13.)  Communication  was  repre- 
•ented  to  be  restored  between  the  Holy  One  and  the  ruined 
sinner.  God  could  regard  the  prayer  of  man,  pardon  his  guilt, 
remove  his  impurity,  extend  to  him  the  richest  blessings  of  his 
grace,  and  in  the  end  receive  him  into  his  own  presence  in 
glory,  as  if  he  had  never  offended.  But  all  this  is  secured 
only  through  a  most  extraordinary  array  of  means,  and  with 
expense  beyond  all  parallel.  The  way  to  the  throne  is  open, 
but  not  for  the  guilty  to  rush  before  it  in  his  own  person  :  his 
desires  may  be  presented  there  and  answered,  but  only  as  they 
come  recommended  by  the  mediation  of  another :  that  media- 
tion is  all-prevailing,  but  only  as  it  is  founded  in  full  and  com- 
plete atonement,  equal  to  the  utmost  demand  of  a  broken  law. 
Thus,  in  the  service  of  the  tabernacle,  there  was  provided  a 
priesthood,  to  stand  between  the  Most  High  and  the  tribes  of 
his  chosen  people ;  and  so  before  the  Most  Holy  Place  there 
was  erected  an  altar  of  perpetual  intercession  ;  and  without,  in 
front  of  the  entrance  of  the  sanctuary,  an  altar  of  continual 
atonement.  By  blood,  and  by  water,  and  by  incense,  God  was 
to  be  approached.  In  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  find  the 
great  realities  themselves  which  were  thus  represented  in 
shadowy  type.  The  Son  of  God  is  the  glorious  Mediator,  who 
makes  reconciliation  for  iniquity,  by  whom  sinners  may  draw 
near  to  Jehovah,  and  by  whom  the  grace  of  Heaven  finds  its 
way  in  overflowing  streams  to  their  dark  and  polluted  souls. 
He  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by 
him,  because  he  ever  lives  to  make  intercession  for  them ;  and 
his  intercession  cannot  fail  to  be  prevalent,  because  it  is  founded 
upon  an  atonement  of  infinite  value — he  has  appeared  on  eurth 
to  take  away  sin  by  one  amazing  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  THE 
SACRIFICE  OF  HIMSELF.  (Heb.  vii.  25,  ix.  26.)  In  the  church, 
there  is  thus  secured  every  thing  that  is  needful  for  man,  in 
order  to  restore  him  to  fellowship  with  his  Maker  here  on 
earth,  to  create  him  anew  in  knowledge,  righteousness,  and 
true  holinoHs,  after  the  image  in  which  he  was  originally 
made,  and  to  introduce  him  at  last  without  moral  upot  or  bleio 
ish  into  the  full  happiness  of  heaven. 


£78  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

We  have  now  surveyed  the  whole  of  the  ancient  tabernacle 
Every  person  must  be  struck  with  the  exceedingly  expensive 
style  in  which  it  was  made.  What  an  amount  of  labour,  what 
an  expense  of  the  most  skilful  and  curious  workmanship,  what 
an  astonishing  worth  of  the  most  rare  and  precious  materials, 
were  joined  in  the  erection  of  a  single  tent !  Hereby  it  was 
signified,  as  it  was  also  in  every  part  of  the  worship  connected 
with  the  sanctuary,  that  God  is  to  be  honoured  with  the  most 
perfect  service  which  men  have  it  in  their  power  to  render ; 
and  that  we  can  never  do  too  much  for  the  honour  of  God,  or 
become  extravagant  in  the  measure  of  our  zeal  and  activity 
for  his  glory.  This  costliness  and  magnificence,  however, 
had  also  its  typical  meaning  in  correspondence  with  the  great 
design  of  the  whole  building.  As  the  whole  was  an  emble- 
matic representation  of  the  great  mystery  of  redeeming  grace 
displayed  in  the  church,  it  was  fit  that  it  should  be  clothed  in 
every  part  with  the  greatest  degree  of  worldly  splendour  and 
value,  to  signify  the  transcendent  glory  and  preciousness  of 
this  mystery,  and  the  moral  magnificence  of  that  church  in 
which  it  is  found. 

After  the  work  was  all  finished,  it  was  set  apart  for  the  ser- 
vice of  God  by  a  solemn  ceremony  of  consecration. — Moses 
was  commanded  to  set  all  up  in  proper  order,  and  to  anoint 
the  whole  with  holy  aitohitimj  oil.  This  oil  was  compounded 
with  particular  care,  according  to  the  direction  of  God  himself, 
and,  like  the  sacred  incense  already  noticed,  might  never  be 
employed  for  any  other  purpose  than  that  for  which  it  was 
.rdered  to  be  made,  nor  imitated  at  all  by  any  composition  for 
common  use :  thus  it  became  holy,  and  sanctified  the  things 
and  persons  that  were  anointed  with  it;  that  is,  separated 
them  from  common  worldly  service  and  dedicated  them  with 
solemn  appropriation  to  God.  (Ex.  xxx.  23 — 33,  xl.  9 — 11, 
Lev.  viii.  10,  11.)  We  are  informed,  moreover,  that  both  the 
tabernacle  and  all  the  vessels  of  its  ministry  were  sprinkled 
with  blood.  (Heb.  ix.  21.)  Thus  they  were  purified  and  pre- 
pared for  their  holy  use. 

In  the  wilderness  the  tabernacle  always  stood,  wherever  the 
Israelites  stopped,  in  the  midst  of  the  camp.  Immediately 
around  its  court  were  pitched  the  tents  of  the  priests  and  Le- 
vites ;  the  priests  having  their  place  to  the  east  before  the  en- 
trance, the  family  of  Gershom  to  the  west,  that  of  Kohath  to 
the  south,  and  that  of  Merari  to  the  north.  Outside  of  these, 
at  some  distance,  the  other  tribes  encamped  in  four  great 
divisions,  each  consisting  of  three  tribes.  Each  of  these  divi- 
sions had  its  separate  standard  and  principal  tribe  by  whose 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  279 

name  it  was  distinguished.  On  the  east  was  the  camp  of  Ju- 
dah,  including  the  tribes  of  Judah,  Issachar  and  Zebulon :  on 
the  south  side,  the  camp  of  Reubtn,  including  the  tribes  of 
Reuben,  Simeon  and  Gad  ;  on  the  west,  the  camp  of  Ephraim, 
including  the  tribes  of  Ephraiin,  Manasseh  and  Benjamin ;  on 
the  north,  the  camp  of  Dan,  including  the  tribes  of  Dan, 
Asher  and  Naphtali.  When  the  signal  was  given  to  march, 
the  tabernacle  was  taken  down,  and  all  its  parts  committed  to 
the  care  of  the  Levites,  to  be  carried  to  the  next  place  of  en- 
campment. Each  of  the  three  families  of  the  Levites  had  its 
particular  charge  in  this  service  assigned  to  it  by  the  Lord. 
The  care  of  the  most  holy  things — the  sacred  furniture  of  the 
tabernacle  and  its  court,  were  intrusted  to  the  sons  of  Kohath ; 
and  they  were  required  to  carry  the  whole  upon  their  shoulders. 
For  convenient  carriage,  the  ark,  the  table,  and  both  the  altars 
were  furnished  with  rings,  through  which  staves  or  poles,  pre- 
pared for  the  purpose,  were  made  to  pass,  by  means  of  which 
they  might  be  lifted  and  borne.  The  staves  which  belonged 
to  the  ark  were  never  taken  out  of  their  rings,  but  remained 
there  when  the  tabernacle  was  set  up;  those  which  belonged 
to  the  table  and  the  altars  were  put  into  their  rings  only  when 
they  were  to  be  used.  In  marching,  the  camp  of  Judah  moved 
forward  first;  then  followed  the  camp  of  Reuben;  next  came 
the  Levites  with  the  several  parts  of  the  tabernacle ;  immedi- 
ately after  them  the  camp  of  Ephraim  set  forward ;  the  camp 
of  Dan  brought  up  the  rear.  (Num.  ii.  1 — 34,  iii.  17 — 38,  iv. 
1 — 33.)  Bearing  in  mind  the  order  both  of  encampment  and 
march,  in  which  the  camp  of  the  children  of  Joseph  had  its 
place  always  directly  bthind  the  tabernacle,  we  may  understand 
that  introduction  of  the  Psalmist's  prayer, — "  Give  ear,  0 
Shepherd  of  Israel,  Thou  that  leadest  Joseph  like  a  flock; 
Thou  that  dwellest  between  the  cherubim,  shine  forth  !  Before 
Ephraim  and  Benjamin  and  Manasseh  stir  up  thy  strength, 
and  come  and  save  us."  (Ps.  Ixxx.  1,  2.) 

Every  encampment  and  removal  was  determined  by  Divine 
direction.  On  the  day  the  tabernacle  was  reared  up,  in  testi- 
mony of  God's  presence  and  approbation,  a  CLOUD — the  mar- 
vellous manifestation  of  the  Divine  Presence  which  had  before 
led  them  out  of  Egypt — overshadowed  it,  and  it  was  filled 
with  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  By  this  cloud  they  were  after- 
wards, continually,  in  all  their  journeyings,  admonished  when 
to  rest,  and  when  and  whither  to  proceed.  While  it  rested 
over  the  tent,  the  Israelites  journeyed  not,  whether  it  was  for 
ft  ihorter  or  longer  time.  But  when  it  was  taken  up,  by  dav 
or  by  night,  at  once  the  whole  camp  was  in  motion  :  the  '.-» 


280  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

bcrnacle  was  taken  down ;  every  necessary  preparation  was  in 
dtantly  made  for  marching;  and  onward,  in  whatever  cours* 
the  cloud  conducted,  the  tribes,  in  their  appointed  order,  began 
to  move.  Again,  when  the  cloud  stood  still,  and  not  before, 
they  stopped,  erected  the  tabernacle  where  it  hovered  on  high, 
waiting  to  descend  upon  its  sacred  resting-place,  and  pitched 
their  tents  in  regular  encampment  round  about.  By  night  this 
mysterious  cloud  had  the  appearance  of  fire.  (Ex.  xl.  34 — 88, 
Num.  ix.  15 — 23.)  To  this  glorious  manifestation  of  the  Di- 
vine presence,  overshadowing,  protecting,  and  guiding  the  ta- 
bernacle and  the  chosen  people  in  the  wilderness,  the  prophet 
Isaiah  beautifully  alludes,  in  describing  the  happy  and  secure 
condition  of  the  gospel  church.  (Isa.  iv.  5,  6,  Zech.  ii.  5.) 
Through  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  the  church,  and  every 
individual  believer,  is  guarded  and  guided  by  the  presence  of 
Christ  and  the  powerful  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  onward  to 
the  land  of  promise — the  rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people 
of  God. 

After  the  Israelites  had  entered  into  the  land  of  Canaan, 
under  the  command  of  Joshua,  the  tabernacle  was  first  set  up 
at  Gilycd.  There  it  continued  till  the  land  was  conquered. 
The  ark,  however,  was  separated  from  it,  and  carried  before 
the  army  in  the  wars  of  the  time.  As  soon  as  the  affairs  of 
the  country  were  settled  in  peace,  it  was  removed  from  Gilgal 
and  set  up  at  Shiloh,  a  town  in  the  tribe  of  Ephraim.  Here 
it  stood  till  after  the  death  of  Eli,  considerably  more  than 
three  hundred,  perhaps  four  hundred  years.  (Josh,  xviii.  1, 
1  Sam.  i.  3,  7,  9.)  Hence  Shiloh  became  a  peculiarly  sacred 
place,  such  as  Jerusalem  afterwards  was,  on  account  of  the 
templus.  (Jer.  vii.  12 — 15,  xxvi.  6 — 9.)  Here  tin-  ark  abode 
in  its  place,  and  hither  the  tribes  of  the  Lord  came  up  to  wor- 
ship. At  last,  however,  being  carried  out  to  the  field  of  war, 
("when  Israel  had  been  smitten  before  the  Philistines,  and  vainly 
dreamed  that  its  presence  would  save  them,  while  yet  they 
dishonoured  the  Lord  himself  by  their  sins,  and  repented  not 
of  their  idolatries,  to  give  glory  to  his  name,)  it  was  taken 
captive  by  the  uncircumcised  heathen.  (1  Sara.  iv.  1 — -'2.) 
The  Philistines  were  soon  compelled  to  send  it  into  its  own 
c:untry  again,  but  it  was  never  after  restored,  it  seems,  to  its 
place  in  the  tabernacle.  In  the  days  of  Saul,  the  tabernacle 
was  removed  from  Shiloh  to  Nob,  for  what  reason  we  are  not 
informed.  (1  Sam.  xxi.  1 — 9.)  In  the  reign  of  David  we  find 
it  again  removed,  and  stationed  at  Gribeon.  (1  Chron.  xxi.  29.) 
The  ark,  meanwhile,  having  tarried  about  seventy  years  a» 
Kirjath-jearim,  (to  whicL  place  it  had  been  brought  after  it* 


BIBLICAL    ANliQUITIES.  281 

return  from  the  land  of  the  Philistines,)  was  brought  soon 
after  David's  settlement  upon  the  throne,  to  Jerusalem.  The 
first  attempt  to  bring  it  up  was  interrupted  by  the  unhappy 
death  of  Uzzah,  in  consequence  of  which  it  was  carried  aside 
into  the  house  of  Obed-edom.  After  three  months,  however, 
the  king  solemnly  assembled  the  priests,  Levites,  and  elders 
of  the  people,  and  again  went  to  fetch  it  unto  the  royal  city, 
with  more  order  and  reverence  than  had  been  observed  on  the 
former  occasion.  It  was  now  carried,  not  on  a  new  cart,  but 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  Levites,  as  Moses  commanded,  accord- 
ing to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  so  was  happily  brought  up 
the  rest  of  the  way  with  the  high  sounding  noise  of  music  and 
joy.  In  Jerusalem,  it  was  lodged  in  a  tent  which  David  caused 
to  be  prepared  there  for  its  reception.  (1  Chron.  xiii.  1 — 14, 
xv.  1 — 29.)  There  it  continued  till  it  was  carried  into  the 
temple. — The  tabernacle,  we  are  informed,  was,  in  the  com- 
mencement of  Solomon's  reign,  found  still  at  Gibeon.  (2  Chron. 
i.  2 — 13.)  Finally,  its  sacred  fabric,  and  all  its  holy  vessels, 
were  removed  likewise  to  the  temple,  and  so  all  its  glory  and 
its  use  were  transferred  to  this  larger  and  still  more  magnifi- 
cent house. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  TEMPLE. 

THE  Jewish  temple  next  claims  our  consideration. — Its 
general  plan  was  the  same  with  that  of  the  tabernacle ;  only 
it  was  larger,  and  more  splendid,  and  had  the  fixed  structure 
of  a  house,  while  the  other  was  a  movable  tent.  The  meaning 
of  each  was  the  same ;  the  one  was  but  a  continuation  of  the 
holy  sanctuary  which  had  its  origin  with  the  other,  and  took 
the  place  of  that  other,  accordingly,  as  the  centre  of  the  same 
great  system  of  ceremonial  worship  that  was  instituted  at  first 
in  the  wilderness.  The  temple  itself  did  not  continue  the  same 
building.  Its  first  form  perished  with  the  great  captivity; 
afterwards  a  new  house  rose  in  its  stead.  Thus  there  was  a 
first  and  a  secor  i  temple.  Each  of  these  is  entitled  to  notiee. 
Before  we  take  notice  of  either,  however,  it  will  be  proper  to 
take  a  hasty  survey  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem  in  which  they  stood 
The  holiness  of  the  temple  extended  itself  in  some  measuro 

24* 


2  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

over  all  the  city.  Jerusalem  was  not  like  rther  cities,  ever, 
of  the  sacred  land.  It  was  "the  place  which  the  Lord  had 
chosen  out  of  all  the  tribes,  to  put  his  name  there."  (Dent. 
xii.  5.)  It  was  the  <•//// o/'  (!<i>j — the  "city  of  the  ( Ireat  King, 
whos<>  spates  he  loved  more  than  all  the  dwellings  of  Jacob." 
(Ts.  xlviii.  1 — 14,  Ixxxvii.  1 — 7.)  Hence  it  was  styled  em- 
phatically the  Holy  City ;  and  by  this  name  it  is  distinguish^  j 
in  the  east  to  this  day. 


SECTION    I. 
THE   HOLY   CITY. 

JERUSALEM  is  supposed  by  many  to  have  been  originally 
called  Salem;  and  so  it  is  imagined  that  the  ancient  city  thus 
named,  of  which  Melchisedek  was  king,  was  no  other  than  this, 
that  became  at  a  later  period  the  capital  of  the  Jewish  king- 
dom. By  the  Canaanites  it  was  called  Jrbux.  When  tho 
land  was  taken  by  Joshua,  the  inhabitants  of  this  city,  though 
their  king  was  subdued,  could  not  be  utterly  driven  out  by 
the  Israelites;  but  having  fortified  themselves  in  the  strongest 
part  of  it,  they  continued  to  dwell  there  for  several  hundred 
years.  (Josh.  xv.  63.)  .At  length,  however,  their  strong  hold 
was  taken  by  David,  and  the  Jebusites  were  for  ever  cut  off 
from  Jerusalem.—  -The  strong  hold  in  which  they  had  so  long 
defied  the  strength  of  Israel,  was  on  Mount  Zion,  which  from 
the  time  of  its  capture  was  distinguished  with  the  name  of  the 
"City  of  David."  (2  Sam.  v.  6—9.) 

Jerusalem  was  situated  on  the  boundary  between  the  tribes 
of  Judah  and  Benjamin.  It  was  built  over  three  neighbour- 
ing hills,  Zion,  Moriah,  and  one  of  less  elevation  than  the 
others,  named  in  later  time,  Acra.  On  three  sides,  it  was 
bounded  by  valleys,  separating  it  from  mountainous  heights 
that  girded  it  round  about  with  perpetual  protection.  (Ps. 
cxxv.  1,  2.)  On  the  north  it  was  not  provided  with  the  same 
natural  security;  its  border  on  that  side  was  distingui>he •! 
indeed,  as  on  the  others,  by  a  considerable  declivity,  but  the 
country  beyond  was  more  open.  Hence  the  city  was  com- 
monly attacked  by  its  enemies  on  the  north  side,  as  an  army 
could  not  approach  it  from  any  other  quarter,  without  great 
difficulty.  The  whole  was  surrounded  with  great  and  sin  OIL; 
walls,  and  each  of  the  hills  just  mentioned  had,  besides,  a  wall 
in'  its  own.  In  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  there  was  a  consider- 
able Huburb  formed  to  the  north  of  the  town,  called  the  A"»  u 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  22-i 

City;  this  at  length  was  enclosed  also  with  walls  by  king 
Agrippa.  All  these  walls  were  fortified  with  numerous  towers. 
The  compass  of  the  whole  city  round  about,  was  between  four 
and  five  miles. 

The  most  lofty  of  the  three  hills  that  have  been  mentioned 
was  Zion,  called  also,  as  we  have  seen,  the  city  of  David.  l\ 
appears  to  have  occupied  the  southern  quarter  of  the  city. 
Close  over  against  it,  on  the  east  of  its  northern  part,  rose  the 
hill  of  Moriah.  Acra  was  situated  more  directly  north  of  it. 
The  part  of  the  town  which  was  built  on  Mount  Zion  received 
also  the  name  of  the  Upper  City,  while  that  which  extended 
itself  over  Acra  was  called  the  Lower  City.  Zion  was  dis- 
tinguished by  noble  and  costly  buildings ;  among  others  the 
sitadel  of  David,  and  the  royal  palace,  could  not  fail  to  attract 
i  stranger's  attention.  Acra  showed  the  greatest  number  of 
streets  and  houses ;  the  most  considerable  portion  of  the  whole 
city  spread  its  population  over  this  hill.  Moriah,  however, 
had  more  honour  than  either  of  these  hills ;  on  its  summit 
was  erected  the  temple.  It  was  very  steep,  and  so  small  at 
the  top  originally,  as  not  to  afford  sufficient  room  for  the  sacred 
building  and  the  courts  that  were  to  be  connected  with  it. 
But  by  means  of  walls,  built  up  from  the  valleys  at  its  bottom 
to  the  same  height  with  it,  the  surface  above  was  extended, 
so  as  at  last  to  be  about  half  a  mile  in  compass. 

The  city  was  separated  on  the  east  side  from  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  by  the  deep,  narrow  valley  of  Cedron,  tbrough  which 
flowed  the  brook  of  the  same  name,  mentioned  »n  Scripture. 
This  brook,  or  torrent,  commences  not  far  northward  of  Jerusa- 
lem, and  having  passed  along  the  side  of  it,  through  the  valley 
just  mentioned,  takes  afterwards  an  easterly  direction,  and 
finds  its  way  'oto  the  Dead  Sea.  It  is  completely  dry,  ex- 
cept during  the  rainy  season,  when  it  gathers  <\  dark  and 
muddy  stream  from  the  neighbouring  hills.  Tb««  valley  or 
chasm  down  which  it  flows  by  the  city,  has  been  'bought  to 
be  the  same  that  is  called  by  the  prophet  Joel,  the  Valley  jf 
Jchoxhaphat. 

The  Mount  of  Olives  spreads  its  dry  and  sandy  bright  im 
mediately  east  of  this  inconstant  torrent.  It  rises  with  con- 
siderable steepness  right  over  against  the  city,  and  is  altogether 
more  lofty  than  the  highest  parts  of  it;  so  that  from  th«  sum- 
mit of  Olivet,  the  eye  overlooks  Jerusalem's  whole  scenwy  of 
buildings  and  streets  with  perfect  ease.  This  mount  was  oltcn 
honoured  with  the  presence  of  the  Saviour.  In  his  visi^.  lo 
Jerusalem,  he  was  not  accustomed,  it  seems,  to  lodge  ip  ihc 
city,  but  used  to  go  out  to  tho  village  of  Bethany,  whicb  *v# 


2S4  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

alt- nit  two  miles  off,  over  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  where  n* 
was  entertained  by  a  pious  and  happy  family,  for  which  he 
had  a  particular  regard.  (Matt.  xxi.  17,  Mark  xi.  11,  19; 
John  xii.  1 — 3.)  Bethphage  was  on  the  same  hill,  not  fai 
from  Bethany,  near  the  road  that  led  from  Jerusalem  to  Jeri- 
cho. There  the  disciples  were  sent  for  the  colt,  on  that  memo- 
rable occasion  when  our  Lord  made  his  last  visit  to  the  guilty 
metropolis  of  Judea.  When  it  was  brought  to  him,  he  sat 
upon  it,  and  rode  forward  in  triumph  to  the  city.  As  he  drew 
lu'ar,  it  spread  before  his  sight  in  all  its  magnificence  and 
pride.  But  to  the  kind  Redeemer  it  presented  only  a  melan- 
choly spectacle.  He  saw  it  polluted  with  the  deepest  defile- 
ment of  guilt — he  saw  the  cloud  of  Heaven's  awful  vengeance 
hung  above  its  splendour,  ready  to  burst  and  sweep  it  with 
unsparing  desolation — he  remembered,  at  the  same  time,  its 
glory  of  many  generations,  its  sacred  privileges,  its  holy  name 
— "and  he  wept  over  it!"  (Luke  xix.  29 — 44.)  Not  long 
after,  from  the  summit  of  the  same  hill,  he  rose  with  a  far 
more  excellent  triumph,  attended  by  rejoicing  angels,  and  sat 
down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  the  Majesty  in  the 
heavens.  (Acts  i.  9 — 12.)  Just  over  from  the  bottom  of  the 
more  northern  part  of  Moriah,  between  the  Kidron  and  tin- 
foot  of  Olivet,  there  is  shown  to  the  traveller  an  even  plat  of 
ground,  about  170  feet  square,  well  planted  with  olive  tn  i  >. 
This,  he  is  informed,  is  that  garden  to  which  Jesus  oft-times 
resorted  with  his  disciples,  into  which  he  entered  the  night  be- 
fore his  death,  where,  in  agony,  he  offered  nj>  pm j/>  r.<  <//«/ 
ntpplicaiioHtj  irith  xtr<>/n/  I'l'i/in//  ii ml  /«//•>•,  and  where  the 
wretched  Judas  betrayed  him  in  the  dark  and  silent  hour — the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane.  As  from  the  top  of  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  the  eye,  directed  toward  the  west,  looks  over  Jerusa- 
lem, so,  when  turned  the  other  way,  it  ranges  across  a  fat- 
more  extensive  prospect.  Before  it,  stretches  the  wilderness 
of  Jericho;  and  downward,  towards  the  south,  the  wildern.'s.- 
>f  Judea ;  far  forward  in  the  view  to  the  right,  it  descries  the 
sluggish  waters  of  the  Dead  Sea,  gathered  over  the  ruin  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah ;  and  away  beyond  Jordan,  over  airain-t 
Jericho,  the  mountains  from  which  Moses  beheld  the  prohii.-. ••! 
land. 

On  the  smith  side  of  Jerusalem,  starting  from  the  valley  of 
Kidron  and  running  westward,  was  Gehenna,  or  the  vall>i/  »/ 
the  son  of  ffinnom,  called  also,  TopJiet.  (Jer.  vii.  31,  32.)  It 
was  originally  a  ver\  agreeable  retreat,  delightfully  shaded 
with  trees.  But  it  became  a  serne  of  idolatrous  ibomiuation 
— a  place  consecrated  to  the  dreadful  worship  .it'  Moloch.  To 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  /85 

the  imago  of  this  idol-god,  were  offered  children  in  cruei  sacri- 
6ce.  Their  own  parents  brought  them  forward,  and  caused 
them  to  be  placed  on  the  arms  of  the  brazen  statue,  from 
which  they  dropped  into  a  furnace  of  fire  that  was  kept  burn- 
ing before  it,  and  perished  without  pity.  To  drown  the  criea 
of  the  miserable  victims,  drums  of  some  sort,  it  is  said,  were 
beaten  during  the  sacrifices ;  and  as  the  Hebrew  name .  for 
such  an  instrument  is  Toph,  it  has  been  supposed  by  many, 
that  the  part  of  the  valley  where  this  idol  was  worshipped  got 
its  name  of  Tophet  from  this  circumstance.  Good  king  Josiah, 
who  vigorously  attempted  to  take  away  idolatry  from  the 
land,  denied  this  place,  we  are  told,  "  that  no  man  might 
make  his  son  or  his  daughter  to  pass  through  the  fire  to  Mo- 
loch." (2  Kings  xxiii.  10.)  He  caused  it,  it  seems,  to  become 
a  place  for  carcasses  of  animals  to  be  removed  to,  and  where 
the  dead  bodies  of  malefactors  were  frequently  thrown.  (Jer. 
xix.  2,  6,  11 — 14.)  After  the  captivity,  the  Jews  regarded 
it  with  the  greatest  abhorrence,  and  continued  to  defile  it  still 
more  than  before  in  the  same  way,  so  that  it  became  a  great 
and  foul  receptacle  for  all  manner  of  filth  and  dead  animal 
matter.  To  prevent  the  pestilence,  which  the  putrefaction  of 
such  a  mass  was  likely  to  breed,  fires  were  kept  constantly 
burning  to  consume  it.  Thus  loathsome,  dismal,  and  full  of 
burning  destruction,  the  place  came  to  be  considered  an  image 
of  hell,  and  the  word  Gehenna  grew  at  last  to  be  the  couuin'u 
name  for  that  awful  dwelling-place  of  the  damned,  where  the 
worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  never  quenched. 

From  the  foot  of  Mount  Zion,  where  Mount  Moriah  stands, 
directly  over  against  it,  flowed  the  fountain  of  Siloam  or  S/ti- 
loah.  Its  waters  were  conducted  into  two  large  pools,  the 
i'pper  and  the  Lower,  from  which  they  might  be  conveniently 
used;  what  were  not  required  for  use,  glided  with  quiet  and 
gentle  -tream  into  the  channel  of  the  Kidron.  (Isu.  vii.  :>,  viii. 
0,  xxii.  9,  11,  John  ix.  7.)  At  present,  according  to  the  ac- 
count of  our  late  missionaries  to  Palestine,  "  the  fountain  issues 
from  a  rock,  twenty  or  thirty  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
ground,"  to  which  there  are  steps  for  persons  to  go  down. 
"  Here  it  flows  out  without  a  singlelnurmur,  and  appears  clcai 
as  crystal.  From  this  place,  it  winds  its  way  several  rod* 
under  the  mountain  :  then  it  makes  its  appearance  with  gentle 
gurgling,  and,  forming  a  beautiful  rill,  takes  its  way  down  into 
the  valley  towards  the  south-east."  On  the  borders  of  this 
humble  streamlet,  were  the  Gardens  of  the  Kinys,  abounding, 
no  doubt,  with  shady  trees  and  walks  of  pleasant  beauty  It 
has  been  imagined,  that  the  upper  poo.  waa  designed  priuci 


286  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

pally  for  supply. ng  these  gardens  with  water,  and  so  was  callwi 
also  the  kinys  pool.  (Neh.  ii.  14,  iii.  15.)  Somewhere  neir 
this  fountain,  we  may  suppose,  stood  that  tower,  called  by  its 
name,  which  fell  in  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  and  killed  eighteen 
persons.  (Luke  xiii.  4.)  There  was  quite  a  deep  valley  in  this 
quarter,  between  the  hills  of  Zion  and  Moriah.  Over  it  was 
erected  a  beautiful  bridge,  or  causeway,  planted  on  each  side 
with  a  rcw  of  stately  trees,  which,  while  they  secured  the  bor- 
ders of  the  walk,  overhung  it  also  with  pleasant  and  refreshing 
shade.  This  was  raised  originally  by  king  Solomon,  among 
his  othei  magnificent  works,  and  led  directly  from  the  royal 
palace  to  one  of  the  gates  of  the  temple-court.  It  was  designed 
to  be  a  convenient  and  agreeable  passage  for  the  king  to  visit 
the  house  of  God,  and  was,  accordingly,  the  common  way  by 
which  the  monarchs  of  Israel  went  to,  and  returned  from,  it? 
sacred  courts.  (2  Chron.  ix.  4.) 

The  city  was  bordered  on  the  west  by  the  valley  of  GiJion. 
It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  very  deep,  and  had  nothing 
about  it,  so  far  as  we  know,  worthy  of  particular  remark.  Be- 
hind it  there  was  all  along  a  height  rising  considerably  above 
the  town,  so  that  when  a  person  was  coining  from  the  west,  he 
could  see  nothing  of  Jerusalem,  till  he  got  on  the  summit  of 
this  elevation ;  when,  all  at  once,  directly  before  him,  its  walls 
and  towers  and  palaces  and  solemn  temple,  burst  upon  his 
sight 

A  little  distance  out  of  the  city,  to  the  north-west,  was  the 
hill  called  Golyotha  or  Calvary.  It  was  the  place  appointed 
for  the  execution  of  malefactors.  There  our  Lord  was  crucified, 
though  he  had  done  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  his 
mouth ;  and  thus  that  spot  became  the  theatre  of  the  most  as- 
tonishing and  interesting  transaction  that  ever  took  place  on 
earth. 

It  was  a  beautiful  sight,  to  look  upon  Jerusalem  in  the  days 
of  her  ancient  glory.  That  glory  however  has  long  since 
passed  away.  It  perished  first  under  the  desolating  power  of 
the  Chaldeans,  588  years  before  Christ  came  into  the  world. 
Then  it  was  that  the  eye  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah  rnn,  down 
infft  rivers  of  water,  for  the  destruction  of  the  <I<nnjlit<  r  of  his 
people.  "  The  kings  of  the  earth,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world,  would  not  have  believed  that  the  adversary  and  the 
enemy  should  have  entered  into  the  gates  of  Jerusalem :"  but 
a  righteous  God,  for  the  multitude  of  her  transgressions,  gave 
her  into  the  hands  of  the  heathen.  "  The  Lord  covered  the 
daughter  of  Zion  with  a  c  jud  in  his  anger,  and  cast  down 
from  heaven  unto  the  earth  the  beauty  of  Israel,  and  reineiu 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  28  I 

bered  not  his  footstool  in  the  day  of  his  anger !"  The  beau'j 
yf  Israel  was  the  temple,  and  the  footstool  of  Jehovah  was  the 
sacred  ark  of  the  covenant  over  which  the  Shechinah  abode  in 
glory  between  the  cherubim.  (Lam.  ii.  1 — 8,  iv.  12.)  Yet 
afterwards,  the  city  was  seen  rising  again  upon  its  ruins.  The 
Jews  endeavoured,  with  the  greatest  zeal,  to  restore  it  to  its 
former  splendour.  From  age  to  age  it  received  improvement, 
and  went  on  recovering  beauty  and  magnificence.  Herod  the 
(Ireat,  at  last,  just  before  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  brought  the 
glory  of  its  second  state  to  its  highest  point  of  perfection.  He 
was  fond  of  great  and  splendid  buildings,  and  wished  to  procure 
respect  and  hohour  for  himself  by  the  noble  works  of  art  which 
he  caused  to  be  finished.  Vast,  therefore,  were  the  sums  of 
money  which  he  expended  in  different  ways  for  the  embellish- 
ment of  Jerusalem.  Thus  the  city  came  to  rival,  and  in  some 
respects  to  excel,  its  former  self.  Again  it  was  a  beautiful 
sight  to  stand  upon  Olivet,  and  look  over  its  irregular  extent. 
]iut  the  horror  of  its  first  desolation  was  now  to  be  renewed 
and  surpassed  in  a  second  overthrow.  The  measure  of  iniquity 
was  at  length  filled  to  overflowing,  by  the  crucifixion  of  the 
Lord  of  life  and  glory.  The  cry  of  guilt  went  up  to  heaven 
with  exceeding  loudness.  The  vengeance  of  the  Holy  One 
displayed  itself  in  overwhelming  terror.  Jerusalem,  after  a 
siege  in  which  sufferings  altogether  indescribable  were  endured, 
fell  once  more,  utterly  crushed  beneath  the  weight  of  the  Ro- 
man arm.  The  abomination  of  desolation,  spoken  of  by 
Daniel  the  prophet,  was  seen  standing  in  the  holy  place.  The 
sacred  city  was  trodden  under  foot  of  the  Gentiles.  The  name 
and  place  of  the  Jewish  nation,  in  the  midst  of  streaming  blood 
and  desolating  flames,  was  taken  entirely  away. 

Jerusalem  became  a  city  again ;  but  not  to  compare  in  anj 
sort  with  her  former  state.  Oppression  hindered  her  growth.- 
and  war,  from  age  to  age,  sported  with  her  feeble  strength.  Her 
own  children  were  scattered  into  every  corner  of  the  earth,  and 
strangers  crowded  her  streets.  For  a  long  time  now,  it  baa 
been  pressed  under  the  miserable  government  of  the  Turks. 
So  much  has  it  suffered  from  the  ravages  of  war,  and  so  much 
have  different  spots  within  and  around  it  been  altered  by  other 
means,  that  it  is  no  longer  easy  to  trace  even  the  most  striking 
features  of  its  ancient  situation.  Its  bilk  have  been  in  some 
cases  lowered  and  its  valleys  raised;  so  that  to  the  spectator 
some  distance  off,  it  appears  to  be  all  situated  upon  one  genera) 
declivity,  gently  sloping  from  west  to  east.  But  on  a  nearer 
view,  it  is  perceived  to  be  still  resting  on  several  hills,  ;tni"iij: 
which  the  forms  of  Zion  and  Moriah  are  discovered  rising  with 


288  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

principal  importance.  The  south  wall  parses  over  Zion,  neai 
«te  summit,  so  that  a  great  part  of  the  mountain  is  without  the 
city.  The  north  wall,  on  the  contrary,  has  been  made  to  take 
in,  on  that  side,  more  than  was  anciently  enclosed,  so  as  to  bring 
into  the  north-west  part  of  the  town  what  is  supposed  to  be  the 
hill  Calvary.  The  whole  city,  it  is  thought,  contains  not  more 
than  twenty  thousand  inhabitants.  Half  of  these  are  Moham- 
nififmiK,  rather  more  than  a  fourth  part  «/>'«•«,  and  the  remainder 
nominal  Christians  of  different  sects,  who  have  lost  almost  en- 
tirely the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  streets  are  nar- 
row, and  most  of  them  irregular;  the  houses  generally  low, 
with  flat  roofs  and  small  grated  windows.  The  summit  of 
Moriah,  where  once  the  temple  of  Jehovah  rose  in  sacred  mag- 
nificence and  grandeur,  is  now  crowned  with  the  mosque  of 
Omar,  a  distinguished  place  of  Mohammedan  worship;  and 
none  but  a  Mussulman  may  pass  the  wall  that  surrounds  it,  on 
pain  of  instant  death.  "After  all  our  research,"  the  mission- 
aries write,  "  we  compare  Jerusalem  to  a  beautiful  person  whom 
we  have  not  seen  for  many  years,  and  who  has  passed  through 
a  great  variety  of  changes  and  misfortunes,  which  have  caused 
the  rose  on  her  cheeks  to  fade,  her  flesh  to  consume  away,  and 
her  skin  to  become  dry  and  withered,  and  have  covered  her 
face  with  the  wrinkles  of  age;  but  who  still  retains  some  gene- 
ral features  by  which  we  recognise  her  as  the  person  who  used 
to  be  the  delight  of  the  circle  in  which  she  moved.  Such  is 
the  present  appearance  of  this  Holy  City,  which  was  once  the 
perfection  of  beauty,  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth." 


SECTION  II. 

THE   FIRST  TEMPLE. 

THI,  idea  of  building  a  Temple  for  the  Lord  was  first  excited 
in  the  mind  of  David.  God  would  not  allow  him,  however,  tc 
execute  the  design,  because  he  had  been  a  man  of  war  and  hao 
shed  blood.  It  was  declared  to  him,  nevertheless,  that  his  son 
who  should  succeed  him  on  the  throne  would  be  permitted  to 
erecv  the  sacred  building.  (1  Chron.  xvii.  1 — 15.) 

Still,  the  good  king  was  not  forbidden  to  bear  his  part  in 
the  great  work,  so  far  as  he  could  help  forward  its  future  ac- 
complishment by  making  preparation  for  it  beforehand.  His 
pi«ty,  accordingly,  displayed  itself  in  this  way  in  a  very  inte- 
resting manner.  All  his  life,  it  appears,  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  consecrating  a  very  large  portion  of  his  worldly  pro- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  28!) 

tverty  to  the  Lord,  to  be  employed  in  his  service.  (2  Sam.  viii. 
11.)  But  in  his  latter  days  his  zeal  and  activity  for  God  grew 
still  more  conspicuous.  The  temple,  though  he  was  never  to 
ace  it  with  his  owii  eyes,  became  the  object  of  his  unceasing 
and  most  lively  interest.  No  care  or  expense  which  might 
contribute  to  its  perfection  seemed  to  him  too  great  to  be  in- 
curred. Great,  therefore,  exceedingly,  was  the  preparation 
which  he  caused  to  be  made  for  this  end.  In  his  trouble  he 
prepared  for  the  house  of  the  Lord  an  hundred  thousand  talents 
of  gold,  and  a  thousand  thousand  talents  of  silver;  and  of  brass 
and  iron  without  weight,  by  reason  of  abundance ;  timber  also 
and  stone,  hewed  for  use,  in  great  quantity;  and  all  manner 
of  precious  stones  besides.  And  over  and  above  all  this  pre- 
paration, because  he  had  set  his  affection  on  the  house  of  hi? 
God,  he  left,  of  his  own  proper  wealth,  three  thousand  talents 
of  gold  of  Ophir,  and  seven  thousand  of  refined  silver,  to  over- 
lay the  walls  of  the  sacred  edifice  withal.  In  addition  to  the 
whole,  the  chief  of  the  fathers  and  princes  of  the  tribes  of 
Israel,  stirred  to  pious  liberality  by  the  generosity  of  their 
king,  offered  willingly  a  large  sum  for  the  same  good  design. 
Altogether,  therefore,  the  value  of  the  materials  collected  for 
the  temple,  before  David's  death,  was  such  as  mocks  calcula- 
tion. (1  Chron.  xxviii.  2—5,  14—18,  xxix.  1—9.) 

Not  only  did  the  aged  monarch  make  such  a  vast  prepara- 
tion for  the  work,  for  the  assistance  of  his  son,  but  he  gave 
him  also  the  exact  plan  according  to  which  the  whole  was  to 
be  made.  In  all  this,  he  was  himself  instructed  by  the  same 
God  that  revealed  to  Moses  the  pattern  of  the  tabernacle  on 
mount  Sinai.  The  sacred  House,  as  well  as  the  sacred  T»nt, 
in  which  the  Most  High  humbled  himself  to  dwell,  was  not 
left  to  be  contrived  in  any  sort  by  human  wisdom.  The  Lord 
pointed  out  the  hill  on  which  it  should  be  erected,  and  the 
very  spot  upon  that  hill  where  the  great  altar  of  burnt-offering, 
that  was  to  be  in  front  of  the  sanctuary,  should  stand.  (1  Chron. 
xxi.  18,  26,  28,  xxii.  1.)  Afterwards,  he  caused  his  servant, 
whose  heart  was  so  much  set  upon  the  work,  to  understand 
clearly  the  manner  after  »rhich  the  several  parts  were  to  be 
constructed.  (1  Chron.  xi/iii.  11 — 19.)  David  carefully  de- 
livered the  entire  plan  to  Solomon,  committed  the  collected 
materials  to  his  direction,  solemnly  charged  him  to  be  faithful 
in  his  great  and  honourable  trust,  exhorted  the  princes  of  Israel 
to  help  him  with  all  their  might,  and  then  departed,  full  of 
days  and  honour,  to  a  better  world. 

Provided  with  such  an  amount  of  materials,  Solomon  under 
i* 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

toofc  to  execute  the  important  work.  He  added  yet  more  to 
the  preparations  of  his  father,  made  arrangements  with  Hiram 
king  of  Tyre  for  aid,  set  many  thousand  labourers  to  work,  and 
in  the  commencement  of  the  fourth  year  of  his  reign  began  to 
build.  On  mount  Moriah,  where  the  Lord  appeared  unlo 
David  his  father,  in  the  place  that  David  had  prepared  in  the 
threshing-floor  of  Oman  the  Jebusite,  the  temple  silentlj 
ascended.  "  The  house  when  it  was  in  building,  was  built  ol 
Btoue  made  ready  before  it  was  brought  thither;  so  that  there 
was  neither  hammer,  nor  axe,  nor  any  tool  of  iron  heard  in  the 
house  while  it  was  in  building."  At  the  end  of  seven  years, 
it  stood  complete  in  all  its  splendour — the  glory  of  Jerusalem 
— the  most  magnificent  edifice  in  the  world.  (1  Kings  v.  1  — 
18,  vi.  7,  37,  38.) 

As  has  been  already  intimated,  the  top  of  Moriah  wns  en- 
larged by  art,  to  make  room  enough  for  the  courts  of  the  sacred 
house.  Soloruon  caused  a  strong  wall  of  square  stones  to  be 
raised  from  the  bottom  of  it,  and  then  filled  up  the  space  be- 
tween the  wall  and  the  side  of  the  hill  with  earth.  Thus  the 
summit  was  sufficiently  extended. 

The  temple  stood,  like  the  tabernacle,  with  its  front  toward 
the  east.  It  consisted  of  the  Sanctuary,  or  sacred  jouse  itself, 
and  a  most  splendid  Porch  rising  before  it.  The  &Mcteuy 
was  sixty  cubits  long,  twenty  broad,  and  thirty  high,  and  was 
divided  into  two  apartments — the  Holy  and  the  Most  Holy 
Place.  It  was  built  of  square  stones;  but  they  were  not  to  be 
seen  in  any  part;  for  over  them,  within  and  without,  was  a 
covering  of  cedar  boards  overspread  with  pure  gold.  Thu 
Porch,  extending  along  the  whole  front  of  the  house  from 
north  to  south,  and  reaching  forward  towards  the  east  ten 
cubits,  ascended  far  above  the  rest  of  the  building  to  no  l<-~ 
a  height  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  cubits.  By  the  entrance 
of  it,  were  set  up  two  great  pillars  of  brass,  one  on  the  right 
hand  and  the  other  on  the  left,  distinguished  by  the  names  of 
Jachin  and  Rtaz.  The  passage  into  this  Porch,  as  it  seem*, 
was  not  closed  by  any  door,  but  was  left  continually  open 

Passing  across  the  porch,  the  priest  entered,  through  beau* 
tiful  folding  doors  of  fir,  ornamented  with  carved  figures  and 
covered  with  gold,  into  the  first  apartment  of  the  Sanctuary, 
the  Holy  Place.  It  was  a  stately  room,  taking  in  the  whole 
breadth  and  height  of  the  house,  and  extended  forty  cubits 
backward  in  length,  floored  and  ceiled  and  walled  around 
with  fir  and  cedar,  all  overlaid  with  shining  gold.  Carved 
figuns  of  various  sorts  adorned  the  .-ide.*  and  ceiling,  and  for 
beauty  they  were  garnished  besides  with  all  manner  of  rara 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  291 

and  piecious  stones.  The  apartment  *yaa  not  witho\t  windows, 
though  we  are  not  informed  of  their  number  or  manner.  Its 
furniture  was  an  altar  of  iucense,  overlaid  with  gold — standing 
before  the  Most  Holy  Place,  as  in  the  tabernacle — ten  table,* 
overlaid  with  gold  and  ten  golden  candlesticks.  The  table* 
and  candlesticks  were  ranged  on  the  two  sides,  five  of  each  on 
the  north  and  five  on  the  south.  All  the  instruments  and 
vessels  connected  with  them,  which  were  many  in  number, 
were  made  of  pure  gold.  One  of  the  tabbs,  we  may  suppose, 
was  particularly  designed  for  receiving  the  shew-brcad. 

Through  another  door,  that  closed  with  folds  of  olive-wood, 
covered  with  gold,  and  ornamented  as  those  of  the  front  one 
were,  the  high  priest,  once  in  the  year,  entered  into  the  awful 
Holy  of  holies.  It  was  twenty  cubits  in  length,  in  breadth, 
and  in  height,  having  the  same  measure  every  way,  and  all 
overlaid  with  fine  gold.  There,  as  in  the  tabernacle,  the  sacred 
ark  that  was  made  in  the  wilderness  hud  its  secluded  place, 
holding  within  it  the  two  tables  of  the  law,  and  overshadowed 
above  by  its  golden  cherubim.  At  each  end  of  it,  between  it 
and  the  side-wall,  Solomon  caused  another  cherub  to  stand, 
much  larger  than  those  on  the  mercy-seat.  These  two  cherubim 
were  each  ten  cubits  high,  made  of  olive-wood,  and  covered 
with  gold.  The  wings  nf  each  were  stretched  out  on  cither 
side,  reaching  on  one  side  to  the  wall,  and  on  the  other  extend- 
ing over  the  ark,  so  as  to  meet  in  the  middle  clear  above  HIM 
otln-r  cherubim.  Over  the  door  and  the  whole  partition-wall 
before  this  Oracle,  or  most  holy  place,  where  God  was  con- 
sulted, there  was  hung  a  great  veil,  like  that  costly  one  that 
was  made  for  the  tabernacle. 

As  the  whole  house  was  thirty  cubits  high,  and  the  Holy 
of  holies  was  only  twenty,  it  is  plain  there  was  considerable 
room  above  it — no  less  than  twenty  cubits  of  length  an  1 
breadth,  and  ten  of  height..  How  this  was  occupied,  or 
whether  occupied  at  all,  we  are  not  told.  It  has  been  conjec- 
tured, that  the  materials  of  the  tabernacle,  and  its  sacred  ves- 
sels and  utensils  that  were  not  used  in  the  temple,  were  laid 
up  there  to  be  carefully  preserved. 

Close  against  the  wall  of  the  house,  in  the  north  and  south 
sides  and  at  the  west  end  round  about,  thei  3  was  erected  an 
additional  structure.  It  consisted  of  three  stories,  each  five 
cubits  high,  which  seem  to  have  been  occupied  with  chambers, 
having  a  walk  or  gallery  running  round  before  them,  into 
whicli  they  opened.  On  the  south  side,  there  were  winding 
stairs  to  go  up  from  the  Jirst  story  to  the  second,  and  from  that 
.^  go  up  to  the  third.  This  structure  was  close  up  against  «}>« 


292  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

walls  of  the  sanctuary,  but  its  beams  were  not  allowed  to  b* 
listened  into  them  in  any  way.  From  the  bottom  of  'he  houite, 
along  the  side  of  these  walls,  was  started  an  additional  wall. 
three  cubits  broad.  After  this  rose  up  as  high  as  five  cubits, 
one-third  of  it  stopped,  and  became  a  resting-place  round  about 
for  the  ends  of  the  beams  that  supported  the  floor  of  the 
sv'cond  story  of  chambers.  The  remainder  of  the  wall,  two 
cubits  in  bread'h,  went  up  five  cubits  more,  and  then  there  wa* 
mother  cubit  left,  like  the  first,  for  a  resting  place,  on  which 
the  ends  of  the  beams  of  the  next  floor  might  be  placed.  From 
there,  the  wall,  with  only  the  breadth  of  one  cubit,  was  carried 
up  yet  five  cubits  more,  and  then  stopped  altogether,  furnish- 
ing a  third  resting-place,  on  which  were  supported  the  ends  of 
the  beams  of  the  roof  of  the  whole  structure.  Thus,  while  the 
lower  story  of  chambers  was  only  five  cubits  broad  across  the 
floor,  the  second  was  six,  and  the  third,  seven. 

The  first  temple  was  surrounded  with  two  courts  or  enclo- 
sures,— a  smaller  one,  called  the  Inner  Court,  or  the  Court  of 
the  Priests,  and  a  larger  one  round  this  embracing  all  the  rest 
of  the  ground  that  there  was  to  be  used,  which  was  styled  the 
Outer  Court,  and  also  the  Great  Court.  There  were  several 
gates  by  which  the  outer  court  was  entered, — one  on  the  ea-t 
side,  one  on  the  north  side,  one  on  the  south  side,  and  four,  it 
seems,  on  the  west  side  The  most  important  of  these  l;i-t, 
was  the  one  to  which  the  causeway  from  the  royal  palace  led. 
There  were  several  gates,  also,  between  the  outer  and  inner 
courts,  to  pass  through  from  one  to  another.  Around  the 
courts,  there  were  various  buildings,  for  the  use  of  the  >anetu 
ary  :  some  of  them  furnished  places  of  lodging  for  those  who 
\\ere  employed  in  the  sacred  duties  of  the  place,  and  others 
were  used  as  depositories  for  different  sorts  of  vessels  and  im- 
plements, and  for  various  articles,  such  as  flour,  salt,  wine 
and  oil,  that  were  needed  for  the  temple  service. 

The  inner  court  corresponded,  in  general,  with  the  court  of 
the  tabernacle.  Toward  the  middle  of  it,  in  front  of  the 
sanctuary,  stood  a  great  Altar  of  burnt-ottering,  twenty  cubits 
-<|iiare,  and  ten  high.  (Ezek.  viii.  16,  Joel  ii.  17,  Matt, 
xxiii.  35.)  It  was  furnished,  also,  with  a  huge  brazen  Laver, 
called  a  molten  sea,  five  cubits  high,  and  ten  from  brim  \c. 
brim:  this  great  vessel  rested  on  the  back  of  twelve  oxen 
aiade  of  the  same  metal.  In  addition  to  this,  Solomon  caused 
:en  other  lavers,  of  much  .smaller  sine,  to  be  set  up  in  tho 
court,  five  on  the  north  side  and  live  on  the  south.  They 
were  placed  every  one  upon  a  base,  curiously  wrought  au{! 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  298 

died  upon  four  wheels :  the  whole  was  molten-work  of  brass. 
Water  was  kept  in  these  smaller  lavers  for  washing  the  flesh 
of  the  victims  that  were  sacrificed.  Each  of  them,  according 
to  the  •jommon  calculation  of  Jewish  measures,  held  between 
nine  and  ten  barrels,  while  the  great  brazen  sea  could  contain 
about  seven  hundred.  This  last  was  appropriated  altogether 
to  typical  use, — it  was  the  Fountain  for  uncleanness,  where 
the  priests  were  required  to  wash,  day  after  day,  that  they 
might  not  die  when  they  drew  near  to  minister  before  the 
Lord. 

The  description  that  is  given  of  this  temple  in  the  Bible  is 
short,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  it  completely  in  all  its 
parts,  by  reason  of  our  ignorance  of  some  of  the  terms  em- 
ployed. We  must  rest  satisfied,  therefore,  with  a  general  no 
tion  of  its  manner.  We  are  told  enough,  however,  to  convince 
as  that  its  beauty  and  magnificence  were  such  as  to  surpass  all 
representation.  (1  Kings,  chap.  vi.  vii.  2  Chron.  chap.  iii.  iv.) 

It  was  a  most  interesting  and  solemn  occasion,  when,  after 
its  completion,  the  temple  was  dedicated  to  the  Most  High 
God.  The  elders  of  the  nation,  and  a  vast  congregation  of  the 
people,  were  assembled.  The  ark  was  borne  in  sacred  order 
from  Mount  Zion.  Sacrifices  more  than  could  be  numbered 
were  offered  before  it.  The  priests  conveyed  it  then  into  the 
oracle,  and  set  it  in  its  place,  beneath  the  wings  of  the  two 
stately  cherubim  that  stood  upon  the  floor.  When  they  came 
out,  an  exceeding  loud  burst  of  music  was  sounded  from  the 
sacred  choir,  swelling  with  the  harmony  of  voices  and  instru- 
ments in  vast  concert,  and  rolling  its  note  of  grand  and  thrill- 
ing praise  all  over  Jerusalem.  In  the  midst  of  this  solemnity, 
the  cloud  of  Jehovah's  glory  took  possession  of  the  house,  as 
it  had  long  before  filled  the  tabernacle,  when  it  was  first 
erected.  Before  its  majesty  the  priests  were  not  able  to  stand, 
to  perform  their  ministry.  On  a  brazen  scaffold,  before  the 
altar,  king  Solomon  stood  and  blessed  the  people,  and,  falling 
upon  his  knees,  with  his  face  toward  the  people,  and  his  hands 
extended,  poured  forth  a  solemn  and  affecting  prayer  to  God. 
When  he  had  ended,  a  miraculous  fire  descended  from  heaven 
and  consumed  the  sacrifices  that  were  on  the  altar.  Thus  the 
Lord  testified  his  approbation.  The  whole  congregation  bowed 
with  their  faces  to  the  ground,  and  worshipped.  Then  the 
king  and  all  the  people  offered  sacrifices  before  the  Lord 
Many  thousand  were  the  victims  slain.  (2  Chron.  chap.  v. 
vi.  vii.) 

AJter  being  completely  spoiled  of  its  treasures,  this 

26* 


'JIM  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

ful  temple  was  reduced  to  ashes  by  the  Babylonians.  Flic- 
rum  took  place  about  four  hundred  and  twenty  years  from  the 
lime  of  its  building,  when  the  nation  was  crushed  and  carried 
intu  i-aptiuity  for  their  many  sins. 


SECTION  III. 

THE    SECOND    TEMPLE. 

AFTER  the  return  of  the  Jews  from  their  captivity,  accord- 
ing to  a  decree  of  Cyrus  the  Persian  king,  to  which  he  wad 
moved  by  a  divine  influence,  the  foundation  of  a  new  Temple 
was  laid,  under  the  direction  of  Zerubbabel.  Soon  after  its 
commencement,  the  work  was  stopped  for  fifteen  years.  In 
the  second  year  of  the  reign  of  Darius,  God  sent  his  word  by 
the  prophets  Haggai  and  /cchariah,  to  reprove  the  people  for 
delaying  to  go  on  with  the  building,  and  to  encourage  them  tc 
carry  it  forward  to  completion.  Then  it  was  renewed,  and  io 
a  few  years  finished.  We  have  an  account  of  this  in  the  book 
of  Ezra.  Thus  rose,  on  the  ruins  of  the  first,  the  X<-<"mtl 
Temple,  about  515  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ. 

When  the  foundations  of  this  house  were  laid,  the  old  men. 
whd  had  seen  the  temple  of  Solomon,  wept,  because  they  thought 
it  would  fall  so  far  short  of  that  in  glory.  (Ezra  iii.  12,  Ila_r. 
ii.  3.)  And,  truly,  there  seemed  to  be  much  reason  for  such 
an  opinion.  The  other  had  been  erected  in  the  most  prosper- 
ous age  of  the  nation,  with  every  advantage  that  wealth  tin- 
most  unbounded,  and  art  the  most  perfect,  could  unite  :  this 
was  to  be  raised  by  a  broken  remnant  of  the  kingdom,  just 
restored  from  distant  captivity  to  a  wasted  and  almost  Jeserted 
country.  When  it  was  completed,  it  seemed  to  labour  under  a 
still  more  melancholy  imperfection.  It  wanted  those  miracu- 
lous manifestations  of  divine  regard,  which  had  been  displayed 
toward  the  tabernacle  and  the  first  temple,  and  some  other  most 
sacred  advantages  which  they  had  enjoyed.  No  CLOUD  of  glo- 
rious majesty  was  seen  taking  possession  of  its  newly  erected 
sanctuary  :  no  fire  descended  from  heaven  to  kindle  the  sacri- 
fice upon  its  altar:  no  Shechinah  abode  between  the  cherubim 
in  the  Most  Holy  Place.  Alas,  there  was  neither  ark,  mercy- 
seat,  nor  cherubim,  found  there  !  They  had  perished,  with  the 
two  tables  of  the  law,  in  the  ruin  of  the  other  templr.  Thus, 
the  oracle  was  without  its  glory.  No  voice  sounded  from  lie- 
hind  the  veil,  as  in  ancient  times,  to  acquaint  the  .nquiring 
high  priest  with  the  will  of  Heaven.  Silence  and  turknes* 
reigned  together  there  year  after  year.  Five  imports, ,  .1  t Kin <;.-: 


BIBLICAL    ANVIQUITIB8.  '295 

Uio  Jews  say,  were  wanting,  in  the  second  state  of  the  temple, 
that  belonged  to  the  first :  these  were  the  Ark — the  Urfm  and 
Thxmmim — the  Fire  f rum  ] haven — the  Shechinah — and  the 
iipirit  of  Prophrry. 

Yet  this  was  the  word  of  God  by  his  prophet:  "I  will  fill 
this  house  with  glory — the  glory  of  this  latter  house  shall  be 
greater  than  of  the  former,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  (Hag. 
ii.  6 — 9.)  The  outward  glory  of  the  latter  house  became  in 
the  end  very  great ;  the  silver  and  gold  of  the  earth  belong  to 
the  Lord,  and  he  caused  them  to  meet  in  vast  quantity  for  the 
decoration  of  his  temple  :  but  the  prophecy  had  in  view  a  dif- 
ferent and  far  more  excellent  glory.  The  second  temple  never 
equalled  the  first  in  the  costly  magnificence  of  its  work,  and 
wanted  much  that  gave  moral  dignity  and  sacredness  to  the 
other :  but  it  obtained  the  pre-eminence,  at  last,  by  such  a 
manifestation  of  Divine  Presence  within  its  courts  as  the  first 
was  never  permitted  to  enjoy.  It  was  not  honoured  with  the 
('loud  of  Jehovah's  ulory,  but  it  was  distinguished  by  the  pre- 
sence of  JESUS  CHRIST,  in  whom  dwelt  all  the  fulness  of  the 
( iodhead  bodily — who  was  <  \\\\\  himself"  manifest  in  the  flesh .!" 
(Mai.  iii.  1,  Col.  ii.  9,  1  Tim.  iii.  16.) 

The  second  temple  was  completely  rebuilt  by  Herod  the 
Great.  To  gratify  his  pride,  and  to  recommend  himself  to 
the  favour  of  the  nation,  which  he  was  conscious  of  having 
justly  forfeited  by  his  unheard-of  cruelties,  he  took  it  into  his 
head  to  pull  down  the  house  which  Zerubbabel  had  erected. 
and  to  raise  in  its  room  a  new  one,  vastly  more  beautiful  aud 
magnificent.  The  Jews  were  afraid,  at  first,  that  he  was  not 
sincere  in  his  proposal,  and  might,  after  taking  down  the  old 
building,  leave  them  without  any;  for  he  was  a  deceitful  and 
malicious  man.  It  was  not,  therefore,  un'.'l  they  saw  the 
materials  made  ready  for  a  new  one,  with  prodigious  labour 
and  expense,  that  they  were  willing  to  let  the  other  be  removed. 
This  was  done  only  seventeen  year>  before  our  Saviour  appeared 
in  the  world,  and  in  nine  years  and  a  half  from  that  time,  the 
main  part  of  the  new  building  was  completed,  so  as  to  be  fit 
for  its  regular  service.  Still,  however,  the  work  of  beautify- 
ing and  adding  to  the  general  structure  continued  to  be  carried 
on  many  years  after,  even  till  after  the  Redeemer's  death. 
Wherefore,  the  Jews  were  not  wrong,  when  they  said  to  him, 
about  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  life,  "  Forty  and  six  years  was 
this  temple  in  building.  (John  ii.  20.)  So  long,  at  that  time. 
was  the  period  which  had  elapsed  from  the  laying  of  its  foun- 
dations, and  all  the  while  it  had  been  reoeiring  new  improve 
UMMK 


-96  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

Let  us  now  take  a  rapid  view  of  the  several  parts  of  tlm 
second  temple,  as  it  stood  in  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  in  all  it* 
beautiful  grandeur.  It  was,  indeed,  as  we  have  just  seen,  the 
third  building  erected  on  Moriah's  sacred  summit  for  the  wor- 
ship of  God :  but,  because  the  temple  put  up  after  the  captivity, 
had  never  been  destroyed  by  enemies,  like  the  first,  and  hail 
been  taken  down  by  the  Jews  themselves,  merely  that  it  might 
immediately  rise  again,  with  a  more  excellent  form,  both  these 
buildings  were  very  properly  spoken  of  as  together  forming, 
one  after  the  other,  the  same  Second  Temple;  which,  accord- 
ingly, had  its  period  from  the  time  of  Zerubbabel  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  city  by  the  Romans. 

THE  COURT  OF  THE  GENTILES. 

THE  top  of  Moriah,  the  Mountain  of  the  Lords  flous*, 
(which,  as  already  noticed,  was  so  extended  by  art,  as  to  measure 
about  half  a  mile  in  compass,  or  a  furlong  square,)  was  enclosed 
by  a  wall,  five  and  twenty  cubits  high,  built  around  upon  each 
side.  This  was  the  outer  wall :  in  some  parts,  perhaps  pretty 
generally  all  the  way  round,  it  took  its  start,  properly,  from 
the  base  of  the  mountain,  being  nothing  else  than  the  wall 
that  was  built,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  valleys  below,  in 
order  to  increase  the  surface  above,  carried  upward  twenty-five 
cubits  higher  than  the  summit  of  the  hill.  Prodigious,  then, 
we  may  well  conceive,  was  the  distance  directly  down  war  I,  in 
many  places,  from  tile  top  of  this  wall  on  the  outside,  to  its 
deep  bottom  in  the  valley  beneath. 

This  outer  wall,  which  was  built  of  stone,  beautiful  anl 
«trong,  was  furnished  with  several  gates.  They  were  all  lar^«-. 
and  costly  in  their  workmanship;  having  each  two  great  folds, 
covered  over  with  precious  metal,  and  so  heavy  that  they  could 
not  be  opened  or  shut  without  considerable  effort.  The  most 
stately  and  costly  one  of  all,  was  on  the  east  side — if  that  was, 
indeed,  as  some  suppose,  the  magnificent  E  intern  Gate,  noticed 
by  the  Jewish  historian,  Josephus.  It  was  covered  with  Co- 
rinthian brass,  exceedingly  splendid,  and  more  precious  than 
silver  and  gold.  A  flight  of  many  steps  rose  to  its  entrance, 
from  the  deep  valley  of  Kidron,  below.  A  causeway,  also, 
lifted  high  upon  arches,  stretched  in  front  of  it,  across  the  val- 
ley, making  a  straight  and  level  way  over  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  on  the  other  side.  This  gate  was  not  situated  in  the 
middle  of  the  eastern  wall,  but  considerably  farther  along 
towards  the  north  end,  in  order  that  it  might  directly  face  tho 
porch  of  the  sanctuary,  or  sacred  house  of  the  temple,  which 


BIBLICAL     4NTIQUITIES.  297 

was  fixed,  I  y  divine  direction,  to  the  northern  part  of  the  en- 
closed square.  It  wus  called  tin-  A'/'////.--  Gate,  because  all  the 
eastern  side  of  the  hill  to  which  it  belonged,  had  been  formed, 
originally,  by  king  Solomon,  with  great  labour  and  expense, 
by  means  of  a  wall  raised  in  the  way  that  has  been  already 
noticed,  from  the  bottom  of  the  valley  beneath.  It  was  called, 
also,  it  seems,  the  Gate  of  Shiishan,  and  had  pictured  upon  it 
a  representation  of  the  city  of  Shushan,  the  royal  capital  tf 
Persia;  in  memory,  according  to  some,  of  the  great  captivity, 
and  so  for  a  warning  against  idolatry,  which  was  the  cause  of 
it ;  or,  as  others  say,  to  keep  up  the  recollection  of  the  won 
derful  deliverance  from  the  malice  of  Hainan,  which  the  nation 
had  experienced  in  the  days  of  Esther,  and  to  bring  to  mind, 
year  after  year,  the  feast  of  Purim,  or  of  Lots,  which  was  then  es- 
tablished in  that  city,  to  be  a  memorial  from  generation  to  gene- 
ration of  the  happy  event.  (Est.  iii.  viii.  ix.)  On  the  south  side 
of  tin:  square,  there  were  two  gates,  which  were  called  the 
finti-a  of  llttlihih.  On  the  west  side  there  were  as  many  as 
four :  one  situated  well  toward  the  north,  directly  opposite  to 
the  gate  Shushan  on  the  east  side,  which  had  the  name  of  Gt- 
j'ontitx,  and  answered  to  the  gate  called,  in  the  time  of  the  first 
temple,  iSltallccfieih,  to  which  that  royal  causeway  already  no- 
ticed led  from  the  dwelling-place  of  the  kings  on  Mount  Zion: 
another  not  far  south  of  this,  toward  the  middle,  called  P<tr- 
//'//•:  and  the  two  gates  of  Asiippim,  still  farther  toward  the 
smth.  These  last  three  had  the  names  just  mentioned,  in  the 
lirst  state  of  the  temple.  The  outer  wall,  on  the  north  side, 
also,  was  provided,  it  is  said,  with  a  gate,  situated  exactly  in 
tiie  middle  of  it. 

All  these  gates  had  towers  erected  above  them.  An  open 
-'pace,  of  several  cubits  in  extent,  was  left  around  each,  where 
the  people  were  accustomed  to  ass  mble.  On  either  side  of 
tliem,  within,  there  were  buildings  or  houses,  standing  close 
against  the  wall,  two  stories  high,  for  the  porters  and  others 
to  lodge  in,  and  for  depositories  or  stores  in  which  were  kept 
various  treasures,  utensils,  and  articles  for  service,  that  be- 
longed to  the  temple. 

All  around,  along  the  inward  side  of  this  outer  wall,  stretch- 
ing from  gate  to  gate,  there  were  y«V.../v,  «r  enverrd  walks, 
most  beautiful  and  stately  to  behold.  Thcsa  were  called 
i'nrrftrs.  Along  the  eastern,  northern,  and  western  sides,  they 
wre  merely  d»nl,l  ,  tli.it  is,  they  eon-isteil  uf  two  hn..nl  co  \vivd 
walks,  one  adjoining  the  wall,  an<l  the  other  running  by  the 
-Me  of  this  mn\  svp.irafed  from  it  simpL  l>y  a  row  of  pillars 
but  on  the  southern  side,  the  porch  was  triple,  consisting  o* 


298  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

three  such  piazzas,  or  walks.  The  flooring  of  these  walks  wan 
all  along,  a  smooth  and  solid  pavement  of  marble  of  different 
colours:  the  roof  was  flat,  made  of  costly  cedar,  and  covered 
with  cement  to  keep  it  from  being  injured  by  the  rain ;  it 
rested  on  rows  of  pillars,  hewn  out  of  white  marble,  and  so 
large  that  three  men  could  scarcely  stretch  their  arms  so  as  to 
meet  around  them.  Where  the  porches  were  only  double, 
they  were  furnished  with  three  such  rows  of  pillars:  first, 
one  close  up  against  the  wall;  then,  fifteen  cubits  over  from 
that,  another;  and,  farther  out  still  from  the  wall,  fifteen 
cubits  more,  a  third.  Thus  the  two  walks  formed  together  a 
breadth  of  thirty  cubits,  divided  merely  by  the  middle  row  of 
pillars,  and  overshadowed  by  a  lofty  rout'.  The  pillars  were 
about  twenty-five  cubits  high;  so  that  the  roof,  borne  upon 
the  three  rows,  was  lifted  to  a  height  equal  with  the  top  of  the 
outer  wall.  Along  the  south  side,  as  there  were  three  walks, 
so  there  were  four  rows  of  pillars.  The  walk  that  was 
next  to  the  wall,  and  the  one  that  was  farthest  out  from  it, 
were  just  equal  in  breadth  and  height  with  the  walks  that 
stretched  along  the  other  sides;  but  the  middle  one  of  the 
three  was  twice  as  high  and  nearly  three  times  as  broad  as 
any  of  the  rest,  so  that  its  roof  was  raised  as  much  as  twenty- 
five  cubits  above  the  roofs  of  the  common  walks  that  lay  along 
with  it  on  either  side,  and  spread  itself  out  on  high  at  a  dis- 
tance of  fifty  cubits  from  the  broad  and  beautiful  pavement 
beneath.  It  was  a  most  noble  piazza,  and  could  not  fail  to 
fill  the  spectator  with  the  highc?t  admiration,  when  he  walked 
between  its  gigantic  pillars,  and  lifted  up  his  eyes  to  it«  riling 
of  rich  cedar,  extended  in  lofty  grandeur  over  his  head.  When 
a  person  stood  above,  on  tk  3  roof  of  this  middle  walk,  he  could 
hardly  look  down  into  the  valley  on  the  outside  of  the  wall, 
without  becoming  dizzy,  the  distance  to  the  bottom  of  it  was 
so  fearfully  great.  It  is  said  to  have  been  no  less  than  five 
hundred  cubits,  or  750  feet.  This  roof  seems  to  have  brru 
that  iiiniuK-l,  of  the  tempi*-,  to  which  our  Saviour  was  brought 
by  the  devil,  and  from  which  the  foul  tempter  urged  him  to 
cast  himself  down  over  the  outer  wall,  into  the  tremendous 
deep  below.  (Matt.  iv.  5 — 7.) 

These  covered  walks  furnished  a  pleasant  retreat  for  the 
people,  in  warm  weather,  or  when  it  was  raining.  They  were 
furnished  with  convenient  scats  along  tin-  wall,  for  persons  to 
•tit  upon.  All  the  day,  people  might  be  seen  moving  back- 
wards and  forwards  along  between  the  row>  of  stately  pillar*, 
or  re.-tiug  themselves  on  the  beautiful  benches,  underneath  the 
*  •«  wi  and  friendly  shelter  that  was  here  provided.  Tho  porch 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  299 

ihut  lay  along  the  east  side,  was  called  Solomon's  Porch,  be- 
came, as  was  stated  a  short  time  ago,  all  this  side  of  the  hill 
Kiul  been  raised  with  special  labour  from  the  bottom  of  tho 
valley,  by  that  ancient  monarch.  (John  x.  23.  Acts  iii.  11. 
v.  12.)  - 

When  a  stranger  entered  the  sacred  ground,  through  any 
of  the  gates  of  the  outer  wall  which  surrounded  the  whole,  he 
beheld  the  House  of  the  temple  rising  with  lofty  magnificence, 
fr  >m  the  north-western  part  of  the  hill.  But  the  space  was 
njt  clear  all  the  way  up  to  it.  Going  forward  a  small  distance 
he  came  to  another  wall,  enclosing  a  considerable  portion  of 
ground  that  was  deemed  more  holy  than  the  rest  of  the  hill 
left  on  the  outside  of  it.  The  space  between  this  second  wall 
and  the  outer  wall,  already  noticed,  was  not  by  any  means  of 
the  same  breadth  on  every  side.  On  the  west  and  north  sides 
it  was  quite  narrow,  and  it  was  not  mucn  tfider  on  the  east 
side  ;  but  to  the  south  it  took  up  about  half  of  the  whole  hill : 
t  It  a-  the  second  wall  did  not  enclose  a  square  with  equal  sides, 
but  a  piece  of  ground  somewhat  more  than  twice  as  long  as  it 
was  broad,  reaching  across  from  west  to  east  within  the  north- 
ern half  of  the  great  square  enclosed  by  the  outer  one.  The 
space  between  these  two  walls  round  about,  was  the  COURT  OF 
THE  GENTILES. 

Into  this  court  all  persons  had  liberty  to  come,  whether  they 
belonged  to  the  Jewish  nation  or  not.  It  was  called  the  court 
of  the  Gentiles,  not  because  it  was  given  up  particularly  to  the 
Gentiles,  for  their  use,  but  because  it  was  the  only  one  to  which 
they  were  admitted  :  farther  than  this  first  court  no  uncircum- 
cised  person  was  allowed  to  pass.  It  was  in  this  court  of  tho 
Gentiles  that  markets  were  kept  for  the  sale  of  incense,  oil, 
wine,  doves,  lambs,  oxen,  and  of  every  thing,  in  short,  that  was 
wanted  for  the  sacrifices  of  the  temple.  These  markets  appear 
to  have  had  their  particular  place  on  the  east  side  of  the  court, 
and  toward  the  southern  quarter.  Here,  persons  coming  from 
a  distance  bought  whatever  they  wished  for  the  purpose  of 
making  offerings  to  the  Lord.  In  the  same  court  the  money 
diumjers  sat,  to  receive  Greek  and  Roman  money,  such  as  wab 
in  common  use,  in  exchange  for  Jewish  half-shekels,  with  one 
of  which  every  man  was  required  to  pay  his  yearly  tribute  to 
the  sanctuary.  They  took  their  stations,  a  short  time  beforo 
the  Passover,  in  the  Porches,  with  tables  full  of  coin  before 
them,  ready  to  accommodate  all  who  wanted  to  exchange.  In 
doing  thfs,  they  required  a  small  fee  to  be  allowed  to  them- 
selves in  every  instance,  which,  because  there  was  so  much  of 
it  to  be  done,  made  their  business  quite  profitable  It  ww 


300  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

very  oonvenient  to  have  markets  at  hand,  and  to  have  thone 
money-changers  to  apply  to,  when  persons  attended  at  the  tem- 
ple ;  but  then  it  was  a  great  abuse  to  admit  this  sort  of  busi- 
ness into  the  temple-court,  for  it  was  mere  worldly  business 
after  all,  and  oftentimes  was  carried  on  with  unjust  and  ava- 
ricious fraud.  Yet  the  unfaithful  priests  not  only  suffered  this 
abuse,  but  encouraged  it  with  their  authority.  Jesus  Christ, 
however,  W!>u!d  not  let  it  pass  without  chastisement.  On  two 
several  occasions,  at  least,  as  we  are  informed,  he  turned  the 
whole  company  of  profane  dealers  out  of  the  temple,  driving 
their  animals  out  with  them,  and  overthrowing  the  tables  of 
the  money-changers.  (John  ii.  14 — 17,  Matt.  xxi.  12,  18.) 
Wh'en  we  consider,  that  quite  a  number  were  engaged  in  this 
traffic,  and  that  it  was  carried  on  according  to  established 
usage,  and  still  more,  that  it  was  carried  on  under  the  appro- 
bation and  authority  of  the  priests,  the  rulers  of  the  temple — 
we  must  feel,  that  it  was  a  wonderful  miracle  which  our  Sa- 
viour wrought  in  these  cases,  and  that  it  could  only  be  by  a 
diviue  power  over  the  hearts  of  men,  to  turn  them  at  his  plea- 
sure, that  a  single,  poor,  and  hated  individual  could  accomplish 
such  a  measure  without  assistance. 

THE  COURT  OF  THE  WOMEN. 

WE  are  now  ready  to  pass  onward  from  the  Court  of  the 
Gentiles,  into  the  holier  ground,  that  was  enclosed  by  the 
second  wall  lately  mentioned.  By  the  sides  of  the  gates  that 
were  in  this  wall,  pillars  were  placed,  on  which  were  seen 
inscriptions  in  Greek  and  Latin,  forbidding,  with  large  letters, 
all  entrance  to  Gentiles  of  every  nation,  and  to  every  person 
polluted  by  the  dead. 

In  passing  through  this  wall  by  any  of  its  gates,  persons  hud 
to  go  up  several  steps  till  they  found  themselves  on  the  inside 
of  it,  as  much  as  six  cubits  higher  than  the  level  of  the  Court 
of  the  Gentiles,  which  had  just  been  left.  Then  there  lay  be- 
fore them  a  level  space  ten  cubits  broad,  at  the  other  side  of 
which  stood  another  wall,  a  great  deal  higher  and  stronger 
than  the  one  just  passed,  which  was  quite  low.  Thus  ill 
ground  there  was  this  space,  ten  cubits  in  breadth,  between 
these  two  walls,  which  persons  had  to  pass  over  before  they 
got  into  another  court.  Wherever  there  was  a  gate  in  the  low 
wall,  there  was  another  just  over  against  it  in  the  high  one, 
so  that  those  who  were  passing  out  or  in  might  go  straight 
forward  from  one  to  the  other.  The  space  between  the  two 
»allg  was  paved  with  marble.  The  high  wall  just  mentioned 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  301 

was  considerably  higher  from  the  pavement  of  this  space,  on 
the  outside  of  it,  than  it  was  from  the  level  of  the  enclosure 
which  it  surrounded,  on  the  other  side  ;  because  that  enclo- 
sure was  still  higher  than  the  space  immediately  round  it  be- 
Iween  the  walls ;  and  as  there  were  several  steps  to  come  up 
to  the  level  of  that  space  through  the  low  wall,  so  there  were 
more  steps  to  go  onward  from  it,  through  the  high  wall,  up 
into  the  enclosure  now  mentioned. 

This  enclosure  which,  according  to  a  statement  already  made, 
was  more  than  twice  as  long  as  it  was  broad,  was  divided  by  a 
wall  across  it  from  north  to  south,  into  two  unequal  parts. 
The  part  toward  the  east,  which  was  somewhat  smaller  than 
the  other,  was  exactly  square  :  the  other  part  toward  the  west, 
while  it  had  the  same  breadth  of  course  from  north  to  south, 
was  a  little  longer  from  west  to  east.  The  square  one  was 
the  COURT  OF  THE  WOMEN.  It  was  so  called,  not  because  it 
was  occupied  altogether  or  principally  by  women,  but  because 
women  were  not  allowed  to  go  beyond  it  toward  the  Holy  House 
of  the  temple. 

The  Court  of  the  Women  could  be  entered  fr^m  the  Court 
of  the  Gentiles,  by  three  gates ;  one  on  the  norto,  one  on  the 
south,  and  one  on  the  east,  each  having  its  situation  precisely 
in  the  middle  of  the  side  to  which  it  belonged.  The  one  on 
the  east  side,  was  directly  before  the  gate  Shushan  in  the  outer 
wall,  in  a  line  between  it  and  the  sanctuary.  This  some  sup- 
pose to  have  been  much  more  elegant  than  the  rest,  and  to 
have  been,  in  fact,  that  Eutlcm  Gate,  so  richly  overlaid  with 
Corinthian  brass,  of  which  Jewish  history  makes  mention ; 
and  which  another  opinion,  already  stated,  has  imagined 
rather  to  have  been  the  same  with  the  gate  Shushan.  That 
splendid  gate,  whichsoever  of  these  two  it  was,  has  been 
thought  by  many  to  be  the  gate  that  was  called  Beautiful,  at 
which  the  lame  man  lay  to  ask  alms  of  those  who  were  going 
up  to  the  temple,  as  related  in  the  first  part  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  (Acts  iii.  2 — 11.) 

When  a  person  went  up  by  any  of  these  gates,  first  through 
the  low  wall  to  the  level  space  ten  cubits  wide,  and  then,  by 
five  more  steps,  through  the  high  wall,  up  into  the  Court  of 
the  Women,  he  found  the  whole  square  paved  with  large  slab*1 
of  marble,  and  surrounded  with  different  structures,  erected 
close  to  the  wall  round  about,  as  we  have  seen  was  the  case  in 
the  outer  court.  In  the  four  corners  were  buildings,  or  cham- 
bers, for  different  uses ;  and  between  these  and  the  gates,  on 
,he  north,  east,  and  south  sides,  there  were  Porches.  These 
Porches  were  merely  sinyle  along  each  side,  having  two  rows 


iO'J  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

of  pillars  :  they  differed  also  from  those  that  were  in  the  Court 
of  the  Gentiles,  by  having  galleries  or  balconies  round  about, 
above  the  lower  walks,  and  therefore  the  ceiling  of  these  wat 
not  remarkably  lofty.  On  the  west  side  there  was  no  Porch 
of  this  sort. 

This  court  was  the  place  where  men,  as  well  as  women, 
ordinarily  performed  their  worship,  when  they  appeared  at  the 
temple  without  bringing  sacrifices  with  them.  Here  Petei 
and  Jolin  used  to  go  up  with  others,  to  pray  toward  flic  tem- 
ple of  the  Most  liiirh.  (Acts  iii.  1.)  Here  it  was,  that  the 
self-righteous  Pharisee  and  broken-hearted  Publican  ap|x-ared 
at  the  same  time;  the  one  boldly  presenting  himself  close  up 
to  the  gate  that  led  forward  to  the  temple,  and  pleading  his 
own  worthiness  before  a  holy  God — the  other  standing  afar 
off,  not  daring  to  lift  his  head  toward  the  dwelling-place  of  the 
Lord,  but  smiting  upon  his  breast  and  crying,  "God  be  merci- 
ful to  me  a  sinner!"  (Luke  xviii.  9 — 14.)  Paul  was  in  the 
same  court  when  he  was  violently  seized  by  his  countryni'-n. 
and  charged,  among  other  things,  with  having  brought  Gen- 
tiles into  that  holy  place.  (Acts  xxi.  26 — 30.) 

This  court  was  the  place  of  the  Treasury,  whore  tha  people 
presented  their  offerings  of  money  for  the  service  of  the  temple. 
Several  chests  or  vessels  called  Trumpets,  because  they  were 
wide  at  the  bottom  and  small  at  the  tup,  were  placed  in  some 
part  of  it,  to  receive  the  gifts:  each  vessel  was  appointed  to 
receive  some  one  particular  class  of  them;  one,  for  instance. 
was  for  money  offered  to  buy  wood  for  the  altar;  another,  for 
money  to  buy  frankincense;  and  so  the  rest  for  different  use-. 
Here  our  Saviour  beheld  the  people  casting  in  their  offering. 
when  the  poor  widow  came  forward  with  her  two  mites,  an  1 
cast  in  all  that  she  had.  (Mark  xii.  41 — i4.)  In  this  part  of' 
the  temple  it  was,  too,  that  he  delivered  some  <»*'  his  solemn 
and  impressive  discourses,  teaching  the  people,  and  reproving 
their  unbelief.  (John  viii.  20.) 

TIIK    COURT    OF   ISRAEL. 

IN  the  middle  of  the  high  wal'  that  bounded  the  Court  of 
the  Women,  on  the  west  side,  was  the  gate  called  Ninuior. 
Through  this,  after  a  rise  of  fifteen  steps,  each  half  a  cubit 
high,  a  person  entered  into  the  COURT  OF  ISRAEL.  These 
step?  were  in  the  half-circle  form.  On  either  side  of  the  lowest 
one,  there  was  a  door  in  the  wall,  facing  the  Court  of  the  Wo- 
men, which  opened  into  a  chamber  cut  out  under  the  level  of 
the  Court  of  Israel  above.  In  these  two  rooms  the  Levites 
deposited  their  musical  instruments.  Still,  when  they  had 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  303 

done  using  them  each  day  in  the  service  of  the  temple,  they 
came  dowu  the  fifteen  steps,  turning  to  the  right  or  to  the  left, 
and  laid  them  away  here  till  they  were  again  wanted. 

Besides  the  gate  of  Nicanor,  there  were  six  other  gates, 
three  on  the  northern  and  three  on  the  southern  side,  by  which 
the  Court  of  Israel  might  be  entered.  These  of  course  let 
persons  into  it  directly  from  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles:  on  the 
east  it  was  necessary  to  come  into  the  Court  of  the  Women 
first,  aii'l  then  from  that  into  this  third  one,  and  this  was  the 
most  common  way  by  which  it  was  entered;  but  on  the  north 
and  south,  those  who  went  out  or  came  in  had  nothing  to 
pass  through  between  this  court  and  the  outer  one  but  the 
two  walls  already  noticed,  one  high  and  the  other  low,  with 
the  level  space  of  ten  cubits'  breadth  that  lay  between  them 
round  about.  Around  against  the  wall,  in  this  third  enclosure, 
there  were  several  houses  or  chambers  standing,  as  in  the 
courts  already  noticed,  for  different  sorts  of  use  connected  with 
the  service  of  the  temple,  and  covered  walks  also  along  the 
four  sides,  from  one  gate  to  another,  reaching  farther  out  from 
the  wall  than  the  buildings  just  mentioned,  so  as  to  have  still 
room  enough,  where  any  of  these  happened  to  stand,  for  per- 
sons to  pass  along  in  front  of  them. 

This  broad  covered  walk  all  around  appears,  indeed,  not  so 
truly  to  have  been  a  walk  alony  the  sides  of  what  was  strictly 
the  Court  of  Israel,  as  it  was  itself  the  whole  extent  of  that 
court.  The  space  within,  surrounded  by  this  walk,  seems  to 
ha\e  been  all  comprehended  in  what  was  properly  another 
court,  about  two  cubits  and  a  half  higher  than  the  pavement 
of  the  walk,  and  separated  from  it  by  a  low  railing.  Into  this 
wide  walk,  or  Court  of  Israel,  common  Israelites  were  allowed 
to  come,  to  attend  on  particular  services  of  religion,  and  from 
it  they  could  look,  without  difficulty,  over  the  elegant  railing 
just  mentioned,  toward  the  holy  House  of  the  temple,  and  see 
all  that  was  done  in  the  court  within. 

THE   COURT   OF   THF    PRIESTS. 

THIS  court  within  was  the  COURT  OF  THE  PRIESTS.  It  had 
in  it  the  beautiful  building  of  the  Sanctuary,  with  the  Altar 
of  burnt-offering,  and  the  Laver  standing  in  front  of  it.  Here 
the  Priests  with  the  Levites  performed  their  daily  service 
J Jesides  these,  no  other  Israelite  might  even  pass  the  railing 
that  surrounded  it,  except  when  he  came  forward  solemnly  to 
my  his  hands  upon  the  head  of  a  victim  that  he  offered  for 
•sacrifice,  or  to  kill  it,  or  to  wave  some  part  of  it  bcfuti:  th« 
Lord. 


304  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

Along  the  eastern  end  of  this  court,  facing  the  front  of  tTi« 
sanctuary,  tin-re  was  a  breadth  of  eleven  cubits,  covered  with 
a  roof,  like  the  walks  already  more  than  once  noticed.  Thus 
when  a  person  went  up  through  the  gate  of  Nicanor,  toward* 
the  House  of  the  temple,  he  passed  first  across  the  covered 
space  of  the  Court  of  Israel,  lately  considered,  and  then,  rising 
four  steps  through  the  low  railing  that  fenced  in  the  Court  of 
the  Priests,  found  himself  in  this  second  covered  space,  of 
which  we  now  speak,  with  the  broad  and  lofty  front  of  tin; 
temple  Porch  full  before  him.  Along  the  back  side  of  this 
space,  just  before  the  railing,  a  breadth  of  two  cubits  and  a 
half  was  appropriated  to  the  Levites  that  conducted  the  music 
in  the  solemn  service  of  the  Sanctuary.  Here,  in  a  row  along 
from  the  entrance  in  the  middle  to  the  corner  of  the  court  on 
each  side,  they  stood  at  the  appointed  times  with  their  various 
instruments  in  their  hands,  playing  and  singing  with  a  loud 
voice  to  the  praise  of  the  Most  High  God.  The  rest  of  this 
covered  space,  before  the  narrow  range  set  apart  for  the  use 
just  mentioned,  was  for  the  accommodation  of  the  prirsts, 
when  any  of  them  were  not  called  to  be  employed  in  service 
elsewhere  in  the  court.  There  were  no  seats,  however,  pro- 
vided for  them  to  sit  upon  and  rest  themselves:  it  was  not  con- 
sidered lawful  for  persons  to  sit  at  all,  either  in  the  Court  of 
the  Priests  or  in  the  Court  of  Israel,  around  it;  reverence 
towards  God  and  regard  for  the  holiness  of  these  places  were 
required  to  be  continually  manifested  by  standing  on  the  feet. 

The  Altar  of  burnt-OBerillg,  that  stood  in  this  court,  was 
much  larger  than  the  one  that  belonged  to  the  h'rst  temple. 
It  had  its  situation,  however,  on  the  same  spot — the  one  that 
had  been  anciently  pointed  out  by  Divine  direction  to  David. 
(1  Chron.  xxi.  18.)  This  being  the  spot  where  the  altar  was 
to  be  built,  it  was  necessary  that  the  House  of  the  temple. 
should  be  erected  near  it;  and  that  was  the  reason  that  it  was 
situated  so  much  toward  the  north-western  corner  of  the  hill 
Between  the  altar  and  the  entrance  of  the  sanctuary,  some- 
what off  toward  the  south  side,  stood  the  Laver.  The  second 
temple,  like  the  tabernacle,  was  furnished  with  only  one. 

THE  SANCTUARY. 

THE  SANCTUARY,  or  Temple,  strictly  so  called,  as  it  stood 
in  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  was  larger  in  its  dimensions  than 
the  building  erected  by  Solomon,  but  constructed  after  the 
same  general  plan.  The  beauty  and  costliness  of  its  work- 
manship were  very  great.  Tin-  walls  were  built  with  stuues 
>f  white  marble,  beautiful  and  exceedingly  largo. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  305 

In  front,  toward  the  east,  the  Porrh  attracted  the  admiration 
af  every  beholder.  It  was,  it  seems,  of  the  same  height  with 
ihat  of  the  first  temple,  but  a  great  deal  broader,  and  twice  as 
wide ;  having  a  breadth  of  no  less  than  a  hundred  cubits  from 
north  to  south,  and  a  width  of  twenty  across  through  it  from 
i-a*t  to  west.  The  entrance  into  it,  on  the  front  side,  was 
seventy  cubits  high  and  twenty-five  broad,  and  stood  always 
•jj»en,  without  a  door  of  any  sort. 

The  S'liicfii'in/  itself,  behind  the  Porch,  was  twenty  cubits 
broad,  from  wall  to  wall,  sixty  in  length,  and  sixty  in  height. 
Around  it,  on  the  north  and  south  sides,  and  at  the  western 
end,  there  was  a  structure  of  three  stories,  after  the  fashion  of 
that  which  was  attached  to  the  temple  of  Solomon,  as  it  has 
been  described  in  the  account  of  that  edifice.  Here  were  a 
number  of  chambers  all  around  in  each  story,  with  galleries 
in  front  of  them,  along  the  outside  wall  of  the  structure  round 
about,  by  which  persons,  coming  out  from  them,  might  walk 
along  to  the  stairs  that  led  down  from  one  story  to  another, 
and  so  go  out  by  some  one  of  the  doors  below. 

The  II' >li/  riiu-e,  in  this  Sanctuary,  which  was  entered  after 
crossing  the  Porch,  was  forty  cubits  long,  twenty  broad,  and 
sixty  high.  It  had  in  it  an  Altar  of  Incense,  one  Can(lt'*f/'</c, 
and  one  Table  for  the  shew-bread,  after  the  manner  of  the  an- 
cient tabernacle.  The  Most  Holy  Place,  measuring  twenty 
t -uliits  every  way,  wanted  that  which  was  the  perpetual  glory 
of  the  first  temple — the  Ark,  overshadowed  with  its  cherubim, 
aliove  which  the  Divine  Presence  condescended  to  dwell.  The 
Jews  tell  us,  that  a  box,  or  coffer,  resembling  it  in  form,  was 
made  to  supply  its  place;  but  this  had  nothing  of  that  peculiar 
and  extraordinary  sacredness  which  distinguished  the  original 
depository  of  the  Tables  of  the  Law;  and  therefore  the  ark  has 
been  properly  reckoned  as  one  of  the  five  things  that  were 
wanting  in  the  second  state  of  the  temple.  The  Holy  Place 
siid  the  Holy  of  holies,  in  the  last  temple,  had  no  wall  across 
between  them,  but  were  separated,  as  in  the  tabernacle,  simply 
by  means  of  a  veil,  very  costly,  and  remarkably  thick  and 
strong :  the  Jews  say  that  it  was  not  a  >//////>  curtain  that  was 
employed  for  this  purpose,  but  two  of  like  texture,  one  being 
hung  before  the  other,  a  little  distance  from  it.  When  our 
Saviour  died,  the  whole  "was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom."  (Matt,  xxvii.  51.)  Hereby  it  was  signified,  thr»: 
in  the  death  of  Ch  ist  the  ancient  Ceremonial  System  was 
brought  to  an  end ;  that  the  darkness  of  the  Jewish  dispensa- 
tion was  to  pass  away  in  the  clear  revelation  of  the  gospel ; 
Mid  especially  that  the  way  into  the  holiest  of  all  was  now 


30<>  HIBLICAI     ANTIQUITIES. 

ni;idc  completely  open  by  his  blood,  for  :ill  believer'  to 
near  ti>  tin1  mercy-seat  of  < Jn  1,  with  bolj  liberty  Mhl  eo 
(lleb.  ix.  8,  X.  19 — *2'2.)  Tin1  veil  that  separates  mail  t'ro  11 
his  .Maker  is  guilt  calling  for  wrath  ;  and  nothing  can  avail 
to  rend  the  awful  curtain  but  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  bottom  of  the  house  of  the  temple  was  six  cubits  higher 
tnan  the  level  of  the  court  of  the  priests  around  it.  Thus,  an 
there  was  a  continual  rise  from  one  court  to  another,  thi  • 
holiest,  highest  spot,  on  which  the  Sanctuary  stood,  was  as 
much  as  twenty-four  cubits  and  a  half  above  the  level  of  'hut 
which  was  first  entered — the  court  of  the  Gentiles. 

THE   TOWER    OF    ANTONIA. 

THKRE  was  another  building  on  this  sacred  hill  that  deserves 
particular  notice.  It  stood  on  the  outside  of  the  court  of  the 
Gentiles,  joining  the  wall  on  the  north,  near  to  its  western 
corner.  It  was  built  originally  by  John  Hyreanus,  tn«- 
Jewish  prince,  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  before  the 
birth  of  Christ,  and  was  used  by  himself  and  his  successors  as 
a  palace,  while  at  the  same  time  it  had  all  the  strength  and 
fortification  of  a  castle.  It  was  a  square  building,  measuring 
two  furlongs  in  compass,  that  is,  as  much  as  three  huii'lred 
feet  along  each  side.  Here  the  sacred  garments  of  the  High- 
priests  were  kept,  to  be  taken  out  only  on  the  solemn  occa- 
sions that  called  for  their  use.  Herod,  with  his  other  works 
of  building,  caused  this  also  to  put  on  new  splendour  and 
strength,  and  gave  it  a  new  name,  calling  it,  in  honour  of  the 
Roman  prince  Antony,  Anttmia.  It  was  forty  cubits  high, 
and  had  at  each  of  its  corners  a  tower  rising  a  number  of  cubits 
higher,  the  one  at  the  south-east  corner  rose  in  this  way  as 
many  as  thirty,  so  that  from  it  might  easily  be  seen  all  that 
was  done  in  any  of  the  several  courts  of  the  temple.  In  this 
strong  castle  the  Romans  placed  a  garrison  of  soldiers,  by 
which  they  had  the  whole  hill  completely  under  their  power, 
and  were  enabled  to  hold  the  city  in  awe  of  their  authority. 
This  was  considered  especially  important,  as  tumults  and  in- 
surrections were  ever  likely  to  be  excited,  among  the  vast  mul- 
titudes that  were  gathered  to  the  temple  at  particular  time-. 
From  the  corner  tower  just  mentioned,  any  disturbance  might 
be  at  once  perceived  by  the  sentinel  who  was  stationed  there 
to  keep  watch,  and  immediately  soldiers  could  be  sent  to  quell 
it.  There  was  a  passage  from  the  castle  directly  into  the  court 
of  the  Gentiles,  through  the  outer  wall,  by  which  they  could 
tnter  the  sacred  enclosure  at  a  rncment's  warning. 

In  this  way,  that  tumult  was  restrained  which  WM  rsisci 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  307 

in  tho  temple  against  the  apostle  Paul.  The  Jews  "fragged 
him  out  of  the  Court  of  the  Women  into  the  Court  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, (which  was  considered  less  holy,  and  was  spoken  of 
sometimes  as  being  out  of  (fie  temple — the  name  temple  beinn 
used  with  a  wider  or  narrower  meaning  at  different  times ;) 
and  here  they  purposed  to  kill  him.  The  chief  captain  of  tin- 
Roman  band,  however,  receiving  notice  of  the  disorder,  very 
souii  appeared  on  the  spot  with  a  number  of  soldiers,  ami  to.»k 
him  out  of  their  hands,  commanding  him  to  be  carried  into  the 
castle.  When  he  came  upon  the  stairs  that  led  up  into  it,  he 
was  permitted  to  address  the  multitude  below,  till  they  inter- 
rupted him  at  last  with  loud  and  angry  cries,  when  he  was 
taken  out  of  their  sight,  and  lodged  within  the  walls  of  this 
magnificent  fortress.  (Acts  xxi.  26 — 10,  xxii.  1 — 24.) — Some 
have  thought,  that  the  commander  of  the  Roman  garrison  in 
this  castle  is  the  officer  intended  by  the  title  Captain  of  the 
temple,  used  more  than  once  in  the  New  Testament;  but  it 
seems  more  satisfactory  to  understand  by  that  title,  as  hinted  in 
a  former  part  of  this  work,  the  chief  of  the  Levites  and  priests 
who  kept  guard  around  and  within  the  temple.  (Acts  iv.  1.) 

IT  was  a  noble  sight  to  look  over  the  summit  of  Moriah, 
crowned,  as  we  have  now  surveyed  it,  with  all  the  grandeur  and 
beauty  of  the  temple  with  its  different  courts.  The  Jewish 
hi>torian  Josephus  speaks  of  it  as  exceeding  all  description. 
The  vast  stones  of  polished  marble,  the  stupendous  pillars, 
the  broad  and  lofty  porches,  the  gates  shining  with  the  most 
precious  metals,  the  towering  front  of  the  sanctuary — all  united 
to  fill  the  beholder  with  the  highest  admiration.  Seen  at  a 
'li.-t.-mce,  by  those  who  were  approaching  the  city,  it  appeared, 
it  is  said,  like  a  mountain  covered  with  snow ;  for  all  over,  ex- 
cept where  broad  plates  of  gold  or  silver  dazzled  the  eye,  it 
glistened  with  the  whiteness  of  wrought  marble.  He  that 
never  saw  Jerusalem  in  her  glory,  say  the  ancient  Jewish 
doctors,  never  saw  a  lovely  city ;  and  he  that  never  saw  the 
sanctuary,  with  its  buildings,  never  saw  the  most  noble  fabrio 
under  the  sun. 

It  was  not  without  reason,  theref  ,/e,  that  the  disciples  of 
the  Saviour,  on  a  certain  occasion,  commended  with  admiration 
in  his  presence,  the  grand  and  beautiful  appearance  of  the  tern 
pie.     As  he  went  out  of  it  on  the  east  side,  going  over  to  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  they  directed  his  attention  to  the  rich  and 
si>l«  ndid  style  in  which  it  was  built  and  adorned  :  "  Master," 
said  one  of  them,  "sec  what  manner  of  stone-;  and  what  build- 
ings are  here  !"     Jesus  saw  all  tnis ;  but  he  looked  upon  it  M 


808  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

a  sight  of  mere  earthly  glory  thut  was  very  soon  to  pass  away 
"  Seest  thou  these  great  buildings  ?"  he  replied  :  "  there  shal. 
not  }H«  left  one  stone  upon  another,  that  shall  not  be  thrown 
down."  (Mark  xiii.  1,  2.) 

And  so  it  came  to  pass  in  less  than  forty  years  after-  Tho 
whole  perished  in  the  awful  destruction  of  the  city  by  *hc  Ro- 
mans. Titus,  the  Roman  general,  wished  to  save  it  ;  but  the 
violence  of  war  was  too  strong  to  be  restrained  in  its  progress. 
It  carried  its  torch  to  the  sacred  pile,  and  wrapped  all  tlie 
glory  of  Moriah  in  wild  and  terrific  flames.  This  melancholy 
ruin  of  the  second  temple  is  said  to  have  been  accomplished  in 
the  same  month  of  the  year,  and  on  the  same  dav  of  that 
month,  which,  more  than  six  hundred  years  before,  had  wit- 
nessed the  destruction  of  the  first  one  by  the  Babylonians. 
After  the  flames  had  done  their  work,  the  walls  were  utteny 
demolished  to  the  bottom,  and  the  whole  ground  on  which  they 
stood  ploughed  up,  according  to  the  Roman  custom;  so  that 
as  Christ  had  foretold,  not  a  single  stone  was  left  in  its  plaee 
(Micah  iii.  12.) 

Here  ended,  for  ever,  the  glory  of  the  Jewish  temple.  It 
was  never  again  to  rise  on  its  ruins,  as  before.  Its  whole 
meaning  and  use  were  over.  The  dispensation  to  which  it  be- 
longed was  brought  to  a  close.  The  time  was  come,  when 
neither  at  Jerusalem,  nor  at  any  other  particular  place,  the. 
Father  was  to  be  worshipped  with  such  outward  service  as  W.-LS 
required  under  the  law.  (John  iv.  21 — 24.)  The  purpose  of 
the  Most  High,  therefore,  forbade  all  restoration  of  the  ancient 
sanctuary.  An  attempt,  indeed,  was  made  to  restore  it.  about 
three  hundred  years  after  its  last  destruction,  which  seemed 
to  have,  as  far  as  human  calculation  could  reach,  the  greatest 
prospect  of  success  ;  but  God  crushed  it  at  the  very  start.  The 
Roman  Emperor,  Jul'an,  (who  had  pretended,  in  early  life,  to 
be  a  Christian,  but  afterwards,  when  he  came  to  the  throne, 
turned  to  In1  a  pagan  idolater,  bitterly  opposed  to  the  truth  of 
the  gospel,  and  so  got  the  name  of  Aponfati'^  gave  the  Jews 
permission  to  rebuild  their  temple,  and  renew  their  long  neg- 
lected worship.  They  set  about  the  work  with  alacrity  and 
high  hope.  But  very  soon  they  were  compelled  to  stop 
While  the  workmen  were  clearing  away  the  rubbish,  in  order 
to  lay  the  foundations,  great  balls  of  tire,  dreadful  to  behold, 
bursting  forth  from  the  ground  with  terrible  noise,  and  re- 
peated earthquakes,  full  of  strangeness  and  horror,  caused  every 
person  to  fly  from  the  place,  and  so  put  an  end  to  the  work. 
Thus  wonderfully,  as  we  are  assured  by  the  most  satisfactory 
testimony  of  history,  did  God  blow  upon  and  blast  th«  design 
that  was  formed  to  counteract  his  holy  will. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  809 


CHAPTER  IV. 
MINISTERS  OF  THE  TABERNACLE  AND  TEMPLE. 

GOD  separated  the  tribe  of  Levi  from  all  the  other  tribes, 
u.  attend  upon  the  services  of  the  sanctuary.  They  were  taken 
in  room  of  the  first-born.  (Num.  iii.  5 — 13,  40 — 51,  viii.  1ft 
— 19.)  They  were  not  allowed,  accordingly,  to  have  any  in 
heritance  to  themselves  as  a  tribe  among  the  others  which  com- 
posed the  -nation.  The  family  of  Aaron  was  taken  out  of  this 
sacred  tribe,  and  consecrated  to  the  priext/uxxl,  to  which  the 
care  of  the  most  holy  duties,  and  the  privilege  of  the  nearest 
approaches  to  the  Divine  Majesty,  were  confined.  The  rest  of 
the  Levites  were  appointed  to  attend  to  duties  less  solemn. 


SECTION  I. 

THE    LEVITES. 

THK  Levites  were  solemnly  set  apart  to  their  ministry  in  the 
following  way. — 1  Having  washed  and  shaved  the  whole  body, 
they  presented  themselves  before  the  tabernacle  with  two  young 
bullocks,  one  for  a  burnt-offering,  the  other  for  a  sin-offering. 
2.  They  were  sprinkled  with  water  of  purifying  by  .M»-< •*. 
.'J.  The  leading  men  of  the  whole  nation  laid  their  hands  upon 
them,  an<J  by  this  ceremony  offered  them  to  God  as  substitutes 
for  theniM  l\rs,  :nrl  in  the  room  of  their  first-born.  4.  A  .-iron 
offered  them  before  the  Lord,  or,  as  it  is  literally  expressed  in 
the  Hebrew,  tmrt-il  thimfo  n  >r,i,>:,,Jf'frfn;/,  before  the  I,opi; 
perhaps  by  causing  them  tc  lall  down  before  God  toward  his 
holy  Tabernacle,  or,  as  others  have  supposed,  by  requiring  them 
to  \\ulk  solemnly  around  the  altar,  in  token  of  their  dedication 
to  the  Lord,  as  /in',/,/  stt<-r/'/i«*  for  his  use.  5.  They  placed 
their  hands  upon  the  heads  of  the  bullocks,  which  wen  chen 
offered  to  make  an  atonement  for  them.  (Num.  viii.  5—22.) 
By  these  ceremonial  signs  was  represented  the  perpetual  con- 
secration of  the  Levites,  in  place  of  the  first-horn  of  all  the 
Israelites,  to  the  service  of  the  Sanctuary;  the  purity  which 
God  *eeks  in  all  who  come  near  to  serve  him  ;  the  necessity 


81  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

there  is,  that  for  this  end  all  such  as  belong  to  the  family  of 
Adam  should  be  cleansed,  as  it  were  with  u-nf'-r  and  hy  M**/, 
by  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  through 
the  sanctifying  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

In  the  wilderness,  the  Levites  had  the  charge  of  carrying 
the  tal>ernaele,  with  all  its  vessels,  from  place  to  place.  In 
this  busiiii .--,  cadi  of  the  three  great  families  into  which  they 
were  divided  had  its  particular  department  of  duty  assigned  by 
God  himself.  In  the  land  of  Canaan,  they  were  relieved,  of 
course,  from  all  this  service.  Only  a  part  of  them  were  needed 
to  attend  about  the  Sanctuary.  The  rest,  scattered  in  their 
several  cities  through  the  land,  seem  to  have  been  employed, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  in  various  ways,  for  the  promotion  of 
piety  and  knowledge  in  the  nation  :  unless  where  they  forgot 
their  character,  and  lost  the  spirit  of  their  office  in  the  spirit 
of  the  world.  That  part  of  them  whieh  attended  at  the  taber- 
nacle or  temple  were  required  to  see  that  they  were  kept  clean, 
and  to  Lave  continually  on  hand  all  supplies,  such  as  wine,  oil, 
incense,  &c.,  that  were  needed  for  the  sanctuary  service.  The 
music  of  the  temple  was  committed  to  their  care,  many  of 
them  were  employed  as  porters,  and,  in  later  times,  it  became 
their  business,  also,  to  slay  the  victims  that  were  brought  to 
the  altar.  At  first,  they  began  to  wait  upon  the  service  of  the 
talternacle  at  the  age  of  twenty -five,  and  were  not  admitted  to 
their  full  ministration  before  the  age  of  thirty,  continuing  their 
service  till  they  reached  their  fiftieth  year.  (Num.  iv.  3, 
viii.  24.)  Afterward,  however,  under  the  temple,  they  began 
to  attend  upon  some  duties  if  their  ministry  as  early  as  the 
age  of  twenty.  (1  Chroii.  xxiii.  24 — 32.) 

David  divided  the  Levites  into  four  great  classes.  The  first 
class,  consisting  of  24,000,  were  appointed  to  assist  the  priests 
— to  set  foncin-il  tin  n-,,1-1;  <>f  thr  MUM  of  flit-  />//•</.  The  se- 
cond, of  6,000,  were  made  officer*  un<I  jn<l</'  s  through  the  laud. 
The  third,  amounting  to  4,000,  were  j#>rti>rx.  The  fourth, 
amounting  to  4,000  also,  were  «//fx/Vm//s.  (1  Chron.  xxiii. 
3 — 5.)  Those  that  were  appointed  to  minister  at  the  temple 
were  divided  into  rotiwx  or  smaller  classes,  which  followed 
one  another  in  turn,  each  performing  service  for  a  week  at  a 
time";  thus  only  a  small  part  of  the  whole  number  were  pre- 
sent at  once. 

The  business  of  the  PORTERS  was  to  open  in  the  morning 
and  shut  at  night  the  gates  of  the  outer  court ;  to  attend 
them  through  the  dav,  in  order  to  prevent  any  thing  contrary 
to  the  purity  or  peace  of  the  temple;  to  have  charge  of  the 
treasure-chambers  near  the  gates  j  and  to  keep  watch  at  dif- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  311 

fcrcnt  places  through  the  night.  The  Jews  tell  us,  that  there 
were  altogether,  about  the  temple,  twenty-four  stations  occu- 
pied every  night  by  guards ;  three  of  them,  in  the  Court  of 
Israel,  were  guarded  by  priests,  and  the  rest  by  Levites. 
Each  of  these  guards,  which  consisted  of  several  men,  had  its 
chief  or  commander ;  hence  we  read  of  the  captains  of  the  tem- 
ple. (Luke  xxii.  4,  52.)  There  was  one  with  still  higher  au- 
thority set  over  all  the  guards  as  their  ruler,  who  is  called  in 
a  more  eminent  sense  the  (.'n/>/<n'n  </f  tltf  tnnjtle.  (Acts  v.  24.) 
This  last,  perhaps,  was  the  same  with  the  J/«n  of  the  Mnuit- 
iiiin  <>f  /In'  Utilise,  whose  business  we  are  told  it  was  to  walk 
round  every  night  and  see  the  guards  at  every  station  were  not 
neglecting  their  duty.  If  he  found  any  asleep,  he  immediately 
struck  him,  and  might  set  fire  to  his  garments,  as  at  times  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  do.  Some  have  thought,  that  there  is 
allusion  to  this  usage  of  the  temple  in  Rev.  xvi.  15. 

The  MUSICIANS,  by  their  courses,  had  an  important  part  to 
perform  in  the  daily  service  of  the  Sanctuary.  Each  course 
had  its  leader  placed  over  it,  called  the  Chief  Musician  ;  which 
name  we  find  in  the  titles  of  many  of  the  Psalms.  Part  of 
them  sung  with  their  voices,  and  the  rest  played  on  various 
instruments,  .-tanding  all  along  in  a  row  across  the  east  end 
of  the  Court  of  the  I'riests.  as  we  have  noticed  in  the  last 
chapter,  with  their  faces  toward  the  broad  and  lofty  front  of 
the  temple.  The  time  for  the  performance  of  this  sacred  exer- 
cise was  when  the  solemn  sacrifice  was  kindled  upon  the  altar. 
"  When  the  burnt-offering  began,  the  song  of  the  Lord  began 
also  with  the  trumpets,  and  with  the  instruments  ordained  by 
David  king  of  Israel  :  and  all  the  congregation  worshipped, 
and  the  singers  sang,  and  the  trumpeters  sounded."  (2  Chron. 
xxix.  25 — 28.)  On  common  days,  accordingly,  the  service  of 
solemn  sounding  praise  was  performed  twice — namely,  whin 
the  morning  and  the  evening  sacrifice  ascended  from  the  altar 
On  extraordinary  days,  when  other  public  sacrifices  were  ap- 
pointed, the  musicians  were  called  of  course  to  additional 
duty. 

According  to  the  Jews,  a  particular  psalm  was  appointed 
for  each  day  of  the  week,  to  be  regularly  sung  with  its  ordinary 
daily  service,  nioriung  and  evening.  Thus,  the  24th  psalm 
was  assigned  to  the  first  day,  (our  Sunday) — because,  say  the) , 
on  the  first  day  of  the  creation-week  God  possessed  the  world 
as  its  maker,  and  so  gave  it  to  be  for  a  possession  to  man  :  the 
48th  psalm  was  assigned  to  the  second  day,  (our  Monday,) — 
because  on  that  day  the  Lord  divided  tin  waters  and  reigned 


81*2  BIB!  ICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

over  them  :  the  82d  to  the  third  day — because  on  that  day 
the  earth  appeared,  established  by  the  wisdom  of  the  .Most 
Iliirli,  and  placed  under  his  righteous  government :  the  94th 
to  tin-  fourth  day — because  on  that  day  He  made  the  sun 
moon,  and  stars,  and  so  will  take  vengeance  on  all  that  worship 
them  :  the  81st  to  the  fifth  day — because  of  the  variety  of  crea- 
tures made  on  that  day  to  praise  his  name  :  the  93d  to  tho 
sixth  day — because  on  that  day  he  finished  his  works,  and 
made  man  who  can  understand  the  glory  of  the  Creator.  On 
the  Sabbath,  (our  Saturday,)  they  sang  the  92d  psalm,  which 
is  entitled  A  Suny  for  the  S<il>l><ith  <l«i/.  On  extraordinary 
occasions,  other  psalms  were  sung.  With  additional  sacrifices 
of  the  Sabbath,  (Num.  xxviii.  9,  10,)  they  sang  the  two  songs 
of  Moses;  the  one  in  Deut.  xxxii.  with  the  first  offering,  (or 
more  properly,  only  a  part  of  it  each  Sabbath,)  and  the  one 
in  Exod.  xv.  with  the  second  offering,  which  was  burned  in 
the  afternoon  before  the  regular  evening  sacrifice.  Each  psalm 
was  divided  into  three  parts;  and  still,  in  singing,  a  considerable 
pause  was  made  between  the  first  and  the  second,  and  between 
the  second  and  the  third.  The  signal  for  commencing  the 
song  was  given  by  the  sound  of  the  trumpets.  These  were 
not  used  in  the  musical  band  of  the  Levites,  but  only  by  the 
priests ;  certain  of  whom  were  stationed  on  the  southwest  side 
of  the  altar,  to  sound  with  them  on  these  occasions.  At  the 
proper  time,  they  made  the  well-known  sounding  of  three 
successive  blasts,  (the  first  and  last  long  and  unbroken,  while 
the  middle  one  was  brought  out  in  a  sort  of  flourish,  with 
breakings  and  quaverings,)  when  instantly  the  whole  band  of 
voices,  harps,  psalteries  and  cymbals,  raised  on  high  the  loud 
anthem  of  praise.  Having  gone  through  the  first  part  of  the 
psalm,  the  music  was  silent.  During  the  pause,  the  trumpets 
sounded  again,  and  the  people  were  expected  to  worship  in 
silent  reverence.  So  it  was  also  during  the  next  pause,  when 
the  second  part  of  the  psalm  was  finished ;  after  which,  the 
music  started  a  third  time  and  concluded  the  service.  Such, 
:f  we  may  believe  the  tradition  of  the  Jews,  was  the  general 
manner  of  the  temple  music. 

The  Levites  were  not  required  to  perform  themselves  the 
more  servile  kind  of  employments  about  the  Sanctuary,  such 
»s  bringing  water,  splitting  wood,  &c.  They  were  allowed 
servants  for  these  labours.  Thes  seem  to  have  been  origin- 
slly  such  as  were  devoted  to  service  of  this  sort  by  parents, 
toasters,  or  their  own  religious  choice.  (Lev.  xxvii.  1 — 8.) 
Afterward  the  number  was  greatly  increased  by  the  subjection 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  313 

uf  the  Gibeonites  and  otliers  to  this  business.  (Josh.  ix.  21— 
27  )  More  were  added  in  the  age  of  David  and  Solomon 
(Ezra  viii.  20.) — These  servants  were  called  NETHINIMS,  that 
is,  given  or  devoted  ones. 


SECTION  II. 

THE    PKIESTS. 

THE  priestly  office  hid  its  origin  with  the  earliest  time*. 
Sacrifices,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  were  appointed  of  God  di- 
rectly after  the  fall,  and  so  accordingly  there  were  priests, 
whose  business  it  was  to  offer  them.  (Heb.  v.  1.)  At  first, 
fathers  were  the  priests  of  their  own  families.  Such  were 
Noah,  Abraham,  Job,  &c.  As  patriarchal  establishments 
grew  to  be  large  communities,  their  heads  seem  to  have  exer- 
cised, at  least  in  many  cases,  a  sort  of  priestly  office  for  the 
whole,  as  well  as  a  royal  one.  We  read  in  the  Bible  of  one 
ancient  priest  before  the  time  of  Moses,  of  peculiarly  interest- 
ing character.  He  was  king  of  Salem  and  invested  at  the 
same  time  with  the  highest  dignity  of  the  sacred  office ;  so 
that  even  Abraham,  though  he  was  priest  in  his  own  family, 
and  honoured  with  the  most  remarkable  favour  of  God.  acknow- 
ledged in  him  a  higher  and  more  especially  sacred  minister  of 
the  Most  High  God.  (Gen.  xiv.  18—20,  Heb.  vii.  1—10.) 
He  was  constituted  a  wonderful  type  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
as  the  apostle  fully  teaches  us  in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
(Ps.  ex.  4.) — With  the  institution  of  the  Jewish  Ceremonial 
Economy,  God  confined  the  priesthood  to  a  particular  family. 

All  the  male  descendants  of  Aaron  were  /'/•/<>•/.<:  the  first- 
born of  the  whole  family,  in  continual  succession,  according  to 
the  regular  order  of  earlier  times,  sustained  the  still  moiv  im- 
portant dignity  of  7//V///-/V/V>v.  We  have  an  account  of  tin; 
manner  in  which  they  were  consecrated  to  their  office  in  Ex. 
xxix.  1 — 35,  and  Lev.  viii.  1 — 36.  The  ceremonies  wen; 
solemn  and  expressive,  and  for  ever  separated  the  family  of  tho 
priests  from  all  the  rest  of  the  nation.  1.  They  were  washed, 
and  then  clothed  with  their  holy  garments,  to  signify  that  they 
needed  to  be  cleansed  from  sin,  and  clad  with  righteousness 
for  their  work. — 2.  Aaron,  the  High-priest,  was  anointed  with 
oil.  (Ps.  cxxxiii.  2.) — 3.  A  sin-offering  was  offered  to  make 
atonement  for  them.  (Lev.  viii.  14.) — I.  A  burnt-tifffring  fol- 
lowed, in  token  of  their  dedication  to  God,  which  could  not  be 
acceptable  till  sin  was  atoned  for. — 5.  A  sacrifice  of  consecra 


311  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

tion  was  next  necessary — having,  in  some  sort  tho  nature  of  » 
pi'm-t-nffiTnuj :  by  the  significant  ceremony  of  putting  a  littl* 
of  the  blood  on  their  ears,  the  thumbs  of  their  right  hands, 
and  the  great  toes  of  their  right  feet,  it  was  intimated  that 
their  whole  powers  were  to  be  considered  as  consecrated  to 
God  :  part  of  the  blood  was  mingled  with  holy  oil  and  sprinkled 
over  them,  by  which  they  and  their  garments  were  hallowed  : 
part  of  the  flesh,  together  with  part  of  the  bread  provided  for 
the  occasion,  was  waved  by  the  priests  themselves,  and  given 
to  God  on  the  altar;  the  rest,  except  the  breast,  which  \va> 
given  to  Moses,  became  their  own  share,  and  was  to  be  eatm 
on  the  same  day  in  the  holy  court  of  the  Sanctuary. — 6.  Thev 
were  to  abide  in  the  oourt  sece.n  days  without  going  from  it  \>\ 
day  or  by  night,  and  every  day  a  new  sin-offering  was  to  bleed 
at  the  altar,  for  atonement. 

When  employed  in  their  sacred  duties,  the  priests  were  re- 
quired to  wear  a  particular  dress.  An  account  of  the  holy 
garments  which  God  directed  to  be  made  for  their  use,  we  have 
in  the  28th  chapter  of  Exodus.  Those  which  the  eommou 
priests  were  required  to  wear  are  hardly  more  than  mentioned, 
toward  the  end  of  the  chapter  ;  so  that  we  can  learn  little  about 
them  from  Scripture,  except  that  they  were,  on  the  whole, 
very  beautiful  and  rich.  Reverence,  it  was  supposed,  could 
not  allow  the  use  of  sandals  or  shoes  in  the  performance  of 
their  holy  ministry.  Accordingly,  they  served  with  naked 
feet  at  all  times ;  though  the  cold  marble  pavement  of  the 
temple  rendered  such  exposure  often  injurious  to  health. 

The  duties  of  the  priests  at  the  sanctuary  comprehended  all 
the  more  solemn  services  of  its  worship,  and  such  as,  My  rea- 
son of  their  direct  and  immediate  reference  to  God,  oonrtituted 
the  true  life  and  substance  of  that  worship.  They  had  charge 
of  the  altar  and  its  fire,  and  presented  upon  it  the  sacrificial 
offerings;  all  the  ministry  that  was  done  in  the  Holy  rim-, 
was  theirs,  &c.  To  them  was  intrusted  the  superintendence 
of  the  whole  sanctuary,  with  all  its  sen-ice :  all  was  ordered 
under  their  care  and  direction ;  it  was  their  business  to  see 
that  the  sacred  system  of  worship  which  God  had  appointed 
wa»  carried  forward  in  all  its  parts  with  decent  and  solemn  ac- 
tion from  day  to  day. — The  age  at  which  they  entered  upon 
their  office  was  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  the  L-vit.-- 

To  be  qualified  for  discharging  the  priestly  office,  it  was  ne- 
cessary, not  only  that  a  man  could  clearly  show  bin  descent 
from  Aaron,  (Ezra  ii.  62,)  but  that  he  should  also  be  five 
from  bodily  defects.  (Lev.  xxi.  17 — 24.)  The  iu.cd.niug  '»f 
this  last  requirement  is  plain.  In  the  outward  m-.-.uoninl  »r- 


BIBLICAL    A>TIQUITIE8.  315 

ru  jeemenl  by  which  the  old  dispensation  shadowed  forth 
)h.ugs  spiritual  and  heavenly,  freedom  from  bodily  imperfection 
represented  that  moral  soundness  which  is  needed  in  such  as 
draw  near  to  the  Holy  One,  and  without  which  no  man  in  the 
ena  shall  see  the  Lord.  (Heb.  xii.  14.)  So,  in  other  respects, 
the  priestly  character  was  to  be  guarded  with  more  than  com- 
mon care  from  every  thing  that  might  seem  to  detract  from  its 
worldly  honour,  or  to  stain  it  with  the  smallest  outward  defile- 
iiient,  in  signification  of  the  spiritual  dignity  and  purity  which 
should  characterize  all  who  come  nigh  to  God.  (Lev.  xxi.  1— 
9,  xxii.  1 — 13.)  In  later  times,  it  became  the  business  of  thu 
Sanhedrim  to  examine  candidates  for  the  holy  office,  and  de- 
termine their  fitness  for  it  in  all  respects.  If  they  could  not 
bring  sufficient  evidence  of  their  descent  from  Aaron,  they 
were  clothed  in  black,  covered  with  a  black  veil,  and  sent 
home  in  disgrace.  If  they  had  such  evidence,  they  were  then 
examined  as  to  their  freedom  from  blemishes.  Such  as  were 
found  defective  in  this  trial,  were  excluded  from  serving  in  the 
courts  of  the  priests;  but  that  they  might  have  some  service 
to  perform  at  the  temple,  they  were  put  to  the  business  of  ex- 
amining the  wood  that  was  provided  for  the  altar,  in  order  to 
detect  any  pieces  that  might  have  worms  in  them,  which  were 
considered  unfit  for  the  sacred  fire.  The  wood  was  deposited 
for  this  purpose  in  the  building  that  occupied  the  north-oast 
corner  of  the  Court  of  the  Women  :  here  these  blemished 
priests  attended  from  day  to  day,  carefully  searching  every 
stick,  to  be  sure  that  none  polluted  with  a  worm  was  carried 
to  the  altar.  Thus  human  authority  added  its  uncommanded 
ceremonies  to  the  original  institution  of  God,  disfiguring  it, 
in  this  case,  as  in  a  thousand  others,  with  vain  and  foolish 
superstition. 

The  priests  were  forbidden  to  drink  any  wine  or  any  strong 
drink  when  employed  in  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  lest  they 
should  become  guilty  of  irreverence,  and  so  provoke  the  anger 
of  God.  Nadab  and  Abihu,  it  seems,  owed  their  crime  and 
thijir  ruin  to  an  undue  use  of  such  liquor.  (Lev.  x.  1 — 11.) 

In  the  time  of  David,  the  whole  number  of  priests,  which 
had  then  become  very  considerable,  was  divided  into  twenty- 
four  classes,  or  courses,  which  were  required  to  attend  at  the 
sanctuary  in  succession,  each  for  a  week  at  a  time.  (1  Chron. 
xxiv.  1 — 18.)  Thus  only  a  twenty-fourth  pan  were  employed, 
tit  mire,  in  the  service  of  God's  house,  and  each  part  was  called 
to  eiitjraire  in  this  employment  only  once  in  about  six  months 
Hie  change  of  one  class  for  another,  week  after  week,  always 
took  place  on  the  Sabbath  •  on  that  day  still,  the  course* 


316  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

both  of  the  priests  and  the  Lcvites  that  had  served  their  week 
went  nut,  and  the  next  in  order  came  in,  to  take  their  turn  foj 
the  wsek  to  come.  (2  Chron.  xxiii.  4 — 8,  2  Kings  xi.  5 — 7/ 
Kadi  course  had  its  own  chief,  and  embraced  within  itself  a 
particular  great  family  of  the  general  stock.  At  the  return 
from  the  Babylonish  captivity,  as  many  as  twenty  of  the  orig: 
rial  courses  or  families  were  found  to  be  without  representa- 
unly  four,  the  Jews  tell  us,  were  represented  among  the 
priests  that  came  back,  so  far  as  genealogical  inquiry  could 
.ix-ertain.  A  new  distribution,  therefore,  was  necessary,  in 
order  to  revive  the  old  plan  of  twenty-four  classes.  Kach  of  the 
four  families  that  returned  was  divided,  for  this  purpose,  into 
six  parts,  which  became  so  many  new  courses  for  the  service 
of  the  second  temple.  To  these  new  courses  the  names  of  tho 
old  ones  were  assigned  by  lot,  and  so  they  were  numbered  ac- 
cording to  the  original  order  of  their  first  appointment.  Thus 
the  twenty-four  ancient  classes  were  revived  in  form  and  in 
name,  though  so  many  of  them  had  been  lost  in  reality.  Tho 
ancient  course  of  Abijah,  which  was  the  eighth  in  order,  had 
been  so  lost  with  the  captivity;  but  a  new  one  had,  in  this 
way,  takon  its  place  and  name,  and  this  was  that  course  of  Al>ia 
to  which  /aeiiarias,  the  father  of  John  the  Baptist,  belonged. 
(Luke  i.  5.) 

The  various  daily  services  to  be  attended  to  were  distributed 
among  the  several  priests  of  each  course  by  lot.  Thus  it  fell 
upon  one  to  kill  the  sacrifice,-  upon  another  to  xj>rinkl>  //« 
lilund ;  upon  another  to  dress  the  lumps,  &c.  According  to 
this  custom  of  the  priests'  office,  it  was  the  lot  of  /acharias, 
while  he  ministered  before  God,  in  the  order  of  his  course,  on 
the  occasion  mentioned  in  the  gospel,  to  l>nrn  im-c/i^  on  tin; 
golden  altar,  in  the  Holy  Place.  As  the  number  Ix-longing  to 
each  course  grew  to  be  large,  it  seems  that  when  one  performed 
its  week  of  service,  all  its  members  were  not  required  to  minis- 
ter every  day;  but  a  portion  of  them  on  one  day,  another  por- 
tion on  the  next,  &c.,  according  to  their  families. 

The  whole  Aaronic  priesthood  was  a  ceremonial  institution, 
shadowing,  in  solemn  and  expressive  type,  the  mediatori.il 
character  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Its  meaning  was  not  pr  >- 
perly  in  itmff,  but  in  this  great  and  glorious  reality,  of  which 
it  was  the  unsubstantial  image.  Accordingly,  when  Christ 
came,  the  ancient  priesthood  was  brought  to  an  end,  as  ha-,  ing 
accomplished  all  its  purpose:  the  image  yielded  to  the  reality 
— the  shadow  to  the  substance.  The  priestly  olVu-e  is  not 
wanting  in  the  new  dispensation  introduced  by  the  gospt  1.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  found  here  in  its  highest  dignity,  and  in  it* 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  317 

jniy  true  worth  ;  not  committed  to  a  great  family,  and  handed 
down  from  fathers  to  sons,  as  under  the  law,  but  gathered  and 
consecrated,  with  unchangeable  perfection,  in  one  person. 
Jesus  combines  in  himself,  in  the  fullest  reality,  all  that  the 
Levitical  priesthood  represented.  It  was  established  in  the 
Ceremonial  System,  to  be  a  mediating  ministry  between  God 
and  the  church ;  it  intimated  that  men,  in  themselves,  are 
unfit  to  draw  near  to  their  Maker,  and  that  he  cannot  regard 
them  with  any  favour,  or  extend  to  them  any  blessing,  except 
through  some  mediatorial  agency  interposing  with  sufficient 
merit  on  their  behalf.  All  this  agency  is  realized  in  Christ. 
He  is  fully  qualified  to  act  for  men,  in  things  pertaining  to 
God ;  and,  through  him,  God  is  abundantly  willing  to  com- 
municate to  the  most  unworthy  of  our  family  the  richest  bless- 
ings of  his  grace.  In  every  respect  the  church  is  blessed,  in 
him,  with  such  a  priesthood  as  her  wants  demand. 

Figuratively,  or  by  way  of  metaphor,  Christians  are  called 
priests.  In  the  Old  Testament,  the  whole  Jewish  nation,  be- 
cause it  was  so  distinguished  in  religious  advantages  from  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  brought  so  near  to  God,  in  comparison 
with  other  people,  is  thus  styled  a  kingdom  of  priests.  (Ex. 
xix.  6.)  So,  in  the  New  Testament,  believers  in  Christ  are 
said  to  be  a  chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  na- 
tion, &c.,  (1  Pet.  ii.  9,)  made  kings,  and  priests  unto  God,  by 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  (Rev.  i.  6.)  Through  his  redeeming 
uiercy,  they  are  washed  and  clothed  in  robes  of  righteousness ; 
consecrated  by  blood,  and  by  the  holy  anointing  of  God's  Spirit; 
t^paratcd  from  the  world  that  lieth  in  sin,  and  permitted  to 
come  very  near  to  the  Lord  in  all  spiritual  services ;  qualified 
to  offer  acceptable  sacrifices  of  prayer  and  praise  and  sincere 
obedience,  and  to  fad  upon  the  holy  provisions  of  God's  house, 
and  to  enter  within  the  Holy  Place,  and  to  approach,  with 
sacred  liberty,  even  to  the  mercy-seat,  in  the  Holiest  of  all. 
(Hfcb.  x.  19 — 22,  1  Pet.  ii.  5.)  Still,  however,  Christiana 
are  in  all  these  respects  only  like  priests,  not  priests  in  r«ilit>/. 
Their  privileges  and  services  have  their  whole  reason  and  value 
only  in  the  priesthood  of  Christ.  There  is  no  other  true  priest- 
hotxl  in  the  church  but  this,  of  the  All-sufficient  Mediator,  now 
pavs«  d  into  the  heavens,  and  set  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
of  the  majesty  on  high. 


87« 


318 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 


Cl 


SECTION  III. 

THE    HIGH-PRIEST. 

THE  office  of  the  High-priest  claims  a  separate  consideration 
It  embodied  in  itself  all  the  attributes  and  all  the  meaning  oi 
the  priesthood,  in  their  highest  perfection.  The  multitude  of 
ilutirs  that  belonged  to  the  priestly  office  in  the  Jewish  cere- 
monial syst<  in, 
made  it  n< 
rytohareanmu 
ber  of  prie-t-, 
but  to  show  that 
it  was  still  roiisi- 
dered  one  s'uiyh 
and  n  IK  fir  it/i /f 
thing,  the  wlmK' 
ministrywas  uni- 
ted and  hound  to- 
gether in  sul'oi- 
dinaterclationto 
one  ropresentu- 
tive  head.  Tin* 
head  was  the 
high-priest.  IJ  e 
was  the  centre 
andsouloftheen- 
tire  priesthood, 
comprehending 
its  most  essen- 
tial agency  exrl  u- 
sivelyinhinisdt, 
and  gathering,  ;u> 
it  were,  into  one 
simple  whole,  all 
the  action  of  its 
several  inferior 


part-. 

We  have  seen  how  he  was  consecrated.  His  sacred  <1rc*s 
was  still  more  costly  and  beautiful  than  that  of  the  other 
priests,  and  is  more  particularly  described  in  the  divine  volume. 
(Kx.  xxviii.  2 — 30.)  The  Ruin  and  L'j>/i»</  have  been  already 
noticed,  in  the  first  part  of  this  work ;  chap  v.  sec.  1.  The 
last  was  exceedingly  splendid,  and  full  of  curious  ornament. 
()u  »::u:h  shoulder  of  it  was  fixed  :m  onyx  stone,  having  graven 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  319 

apon  it  the  names  of  six  of  the  tribes  of  Israel ;  so  as  to  have 
together  all  of  them  thus  inscribed,  to  be  borne  before  the 
Lord,  for  a  memorial  upon  the  High-priest.  The  embroidered 
coat  was  a  richly  wrought  tunic,  which  sort  of  garment  has 
also  been  noticed,  in  the  same  section,  as  being  the  one  that 
was  commonly  worn  by  all  persons  next  to  the  skin.  The 
Rri'dxi-plnte.  was  a  square  piece,  measuring  only  a  span  each 
way,  composed  of  the  same  sort  of  highly  ornamented  stuff  as 
that  of  the  ephod,  and  made  double,  in  such  a  way,  perhaps, 
*s  to  form  a  sort  of  bag  or  pouch  in  the  inside.  On  one  side 
of  it  was  set  four  rows  of  precious  stones,  each  row  having 
fchree,  and  no  two  of  all  being  alike,  on  every  one  of  which  was 
engraved  the  name  of  one  of  the  twelve  tribes.  This  was  t'a-t- 
ened  to  the  front  part  of  the  ephod,  with  the  side  that  was 
set  with  stones,  outward ;  and  thus  the  names  of  the  children 
of  Israel  were  carried  by  the  High-priest  upon  his  breast,  as 
w«-!l  as  upon  his  shoulders,  for  a  memorial  before  the  Lord, 
when  he  went  into  the  Holy  Place.  In  this  way  it  was  sig- 
nified, that  he  was  the  mediatorial  representative  of  the  whole 
church  ;  that  all  its  access  to  God,  and  acceptance  with  him. 
was  in  and  through  ///.>  person,  ami  that  he  continually  acted 
for  its  universal  body,  in  all  his  official  ministrations.  The 
Mitre  was  made  of  fine  linen,  folded  many  times  round,  and 
finished  with  peculiar  elegance  and  taste.  Upon  the  front  of 
it  was  fixed  a  plate  of  pure  gold,  bearing  upon  it  the  expressive 
inscription,  HOUNKSS  TO  TIIK  LOUD.  The  robe  covered  the 
tunic ;  and  the  ephod,  as  far  as  it  reached  down  from  the 
shoulders,  was  girded  over  the  robe,  outmost  of  all.  (Ex. 
xxxix.  1—31.) 

Thus  splendid  was  the  whole  official  dress  which  the  High- 
priest  wore  on  ordinary  occasions.  But  on  the  great  day  of 
atonement,  when  he  entered  into  the  Holiest  of  all,  he  clothed 
himself  with  other  garments,  made  altogether  of  linen,  strik- 
ingly plain  and  simple.  (Lev.  xvi.  4,  23.) 

As  the  High-priest  was  the  most  important,  by  far,  of  all 
the  priests,  and  included  in  himself  the  highest  and  most  es- 
sential dignity  of  the  priestly  office,  he  was  required  to  guard 
himself  with  yet  more  care  than  the  rest  of  his  family,  from 
every  thing  like  degradation  or  defilement,  in  the  smallest  de- 
gree. (Lev.  xxi.  10 — 15.)  His  office  was  originally  held  ftr 
life,  according  to  the  Divine  intention.  But  in  later  times 
after  the  captivity,  it  came  to  be  oftentimes  violently  taken 
away  from  one,  and  gi'"in  to  another,  without  regard  to  tho 
ancient  usage.  The  right  of  birth  too,  which,  under  the  first 
temple,  confined  the  office  to  the  line  of  the  first-boru,  was  in 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

this  latter  age  trampled  under  foot.  Wicked  men  sought  the 
distinction  in  the  most  corrupt  manner.  Money  and  shameful 
intrigue  were  employed  to  get  possession  of  it.  More  than 
once,  the  way  to  the  Aaronic  mitre,  as  oftentimes  the  way  to 
a  royal  croicn  has  been,  was  through  murder  itself;  while  the 
wearer  displayed  upon  his  forehead,  engraven  in  gold,  that 
signature,  Holiness  to  the  Lord,  the  guilt  of  blood  polluted  his 
soul  with  its  foulest  stain.  Thus  the  office  came  to  be  held  by 
the  worst  of  men,  following  each  other  in  quick  succession,  and 
piety  had  no  place  where  it  ought  to  have  been  found  in  its 
highest  perfection.  Such  unholy  men  were  the  high-priests 
that  lived  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour.  Such  was  that  r.//,/- 
phas,  who  presided  in  the  Sanhedrim  when  it  tried  and  con- 
demned the  Lord  of  glory.  The  place  had  been  occupied  some 
years  before  by  Annas;  on  which  account  he  is  styled  High- 
priest  in  the  history  of  Christ's  crucifixion,  although  at  that 
time  he  did  not  actually  hold  the  office,  having  been  put  out 
of  it  to  make  room  for  another.  Between  him  and  Caiaphas, 
though  both  were  living  at  the  same  time,  there  had  been,  in 
fact,  no  less  than  two  other  persons  clothed  for  a  little  time 
with  the  dignity. 

The  High-priest  might,  at  any  time,  if  he  chose,  perform 
the  sacred  duties  which  were  commonly  discharged  by  the 
other  priests.  He  was  accustomed,  the  Jewish  writers  say,  to 
offer  a  meat-offering  of  fine  flour  every  day,  half  of  it  in  the 
morning,  and  half  of  it  in  the  evening,  at  his  own  expense ; 
for  so  the  law,  in  their  view,  was  supposed  to  require,  and  not 
merely  that  he  should  present  such  an  offering  on  the  day  of 
his  consecration.  His  most  solemn  work,  however,  was  per- 
formed on  the  most  solemn  of  all  the  days  of  the  year — the 
Great  Day  of  atonement,  which  will  come  under  consideration 
hereafter :  the  duties  he  had  to  discharge  on  that  day  were 
such  as  no  common  priest  could  ever  attempt  to  do.  It  was, 
moreever,  particularly  his  business  to  consult  God,  when  the 
interests  of  the  people  made  it  proper,  by  Urim  and  Th\nnmim. 

It  has  been  much  inquired,  what  we  are  to  understand  by 
the  URIM  and  Tin  MMIM,  and  how,  by  means  of  it,  the  will 
of  God  was  discovered  when  sought  in  this  way.  Various  con- 
jectures, and  some  of  them  very  foolish,  have  been  imagined 
by  learned  men  upon  the  subject.  The  account  of  it  is  thus 
given  in  the  sacred  volume :  "  Thou  shalt  put  in  the  breast- 
plate of  judgment,  the  Urim  and  Thummim  ;  and  they  shall 
be  upon  Aaron's  heart,  when  he  goeth  in  before  the  Lord : 
and  Aaron  shall  bear  the  judgment  of  the  children  of  Israel 
upon  his  heart  before  the  Lord,  continually."  (Ex.  xxviii.  30.) 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  821 

The  words  Urini  and  Thumuiini  signify,  literally,  Liyhta  and 
I*  r fictions ;  but  as  we  are  not  furnished  with  any  description 
of  the  thhitf  itself  so  called,  we  must  necessarily  remain  in  the 
dark  on  this  point.  Whatever  it  was,  it  was  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  solemn  consultation  of  the  Divine  will ;  and 
by  its  heavenly  appointment,  it  included  in  it  a  continual  as- 
surance, that  when  God  wsis  inquired  of  on  any  suitable  occa- 
sion in  this  wsiy,  his  answer  might  be  confidently  expected. 
Some  have  thought,  therefore,  that  we  are  to  understand  by 
it,  merely  a  divine  virtue  imparted  to  the  breast-plate  of  the 
high-priest,  whereby  it  was,  as  it  were,  consecrated  to  its  use, 
and  became  an  effectual  means  of  discovering  the  will  of  the 
Lord ;  and  that  thus  the  breast-plate  itself  might  well  be  called 
Urim.  The  language  of  the  Bible,  however,  seems  rather  to 
intimate  that  some  visible  thing  was  added  to  the  breast-plate, 
as  the  giyn  and  pledge  of  this  virtue  which  it  was  to  possess. 
In  either  case,  these  names  would  denote  the  clear  and  perfect 
manner  in  which  God  made  known  his  will,  when  consulted 
by  this  method.  Counsel  was  asked  of  God  by  Urim  and 
Thummim  only  in  difficult  and  important  cases.  The  high- 
priest,  chid  in  his  sacred  robes,  with  the  breast-plate  on  his 
breast,  presented  himself  in  the  Holy  Place,  and  proposed  the 
inquiry.  The  voice  of  the  Most  High  sounded  in  distinct 
an -were,  as  it  seems,  from  between  the  cherubim  behind  the 
veil.  Thus  repeatedly,  we  are  informed,  counsel  was  sought 
and  obtained  in  the  time  of  the  tabernacle.  Even  when  the 
ark  wsis  away  from  its  sacred  tent,  the  priest,  girded  with  his 
wonderful  ephod,  often  stood  before  it,  and  had  the  will  of  the 
Lord  made  known  in  answer  to  his  inquiries.  (Judg.  i.  1,  2, 
xx.  18,  23,  28,  1  Sam.  xxii.  10,  xxiii.  9—13,  xxviii.  6.)  We 
have  no  account  of  God  being  consulted  in  this  way  in  the 
time  of  the  temple. 

As  we  have  seen  already,  the  High-priest  was  intrusted  with 
the  most  important  power  as  njitdye,  not  only  in  sacred  mat- 
ters, but  in  questions  also  of  a  merely  civil  kind.  1  !<•  sustained, 
too,  a  chief  rank  in  the  royal  court,  a»  a  counsellor,  to  whom 
tin;  king  was  expected  to  have  recourse  in  every  great  interest 
of  the  state. 

We  read  in  2  Kings  xxv.  18,  and  Jer.  Hi.  24,  of  a  tin, mi 
]>rits/  as  well  as  a  chief  one.  This  seems  to  have  been  onu 
appointed  t<i  assist  the  chief  or  high-priest,  in  the  general  over- 
sight of  tin;  Sanctuary,  and  in  cases  of  unexpected  necessity, 
to  teikc  his  place,  even  in  the  most  solemn  duties.  As  he 
Uligilt  lie  suddenly  untitted  for  his  peeuliar  wrk  by  sickt: 
or  defilement,  and  yet  it  was  of  the  most  vital  iiupurtuucu  that 


822  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

on  the  great  day  of  Atonement,  especially,  that  work  should 
not  be  omitted,  it  was  certainly  altogether  expedient  to  have 
such  a  substitute,  qualified  in  such  emergencies  to  take  upon 
himself  the  whole  character  of  high-priest,  in  his  stead,  and  jo 
to  accomplish  the  holy  services  of  the  season  in  their  prupei 
place.  The  Jewish  writers  of  later  times  make  frequent  men- 
tion of  such  an  assistant  and  substitute  (when  necessary)  of  the 
high-priest.  They  call  him  the  Sayan. 

We  have  seen  that  the  whole  priesthood  was  instituted  ot 
God,  to  represent,  in  shadowy  type,  the  mediatorial  character 
of  our  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ.  To  him  the.  priestly  office 
hud  regard  from  the  beginning.  It  was  unly  in  its  relation  to 
him  that  it  had  any  meaning  whatever.  He  nc,-,  it  is  plain, 
the  kigkfrinL  in  the  Jewish  economy,  was  m.  rr  than  any 
other  single  priest,  a  figure  of  this  Great  Mediator  that  wa,»  to 
come.  As  he  was  the  soul  of  the  entire  priesthood,  and  com- 
prehended in  himself,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  universal  oftVe, 
(though  necessity  required  a  distribution  of  its  manifold  duties 
among  many  secondary  ministers,  and  reserved  for  him  exclu- 
sively only  such  as  were  most  vital  and  essential  in  their  na- 
ture,) he  of  course  embodied,  in  his  official  person,  the  largest 
measure,  by  far,  of  that  typical  significancy  that  has  been  men- 
tioned. This  will  appear  with  peculiarly  striking  evidence, 
when  we  come  hereafter  to  consider  the  solemn  services  which 
he  was  required  to  perform  on  the  day  of  atonement.  The 
apostle,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  dwells  at  large  upon  the 
priestly  character  of  Christ,  and  shows  how  infinitely  it  ex- 
ceeded, in  dignity  and  glory,  all  that  had  belonged,  in  tho 
earthly  pattern  of  heavenly  things,  to  the  Aaronic  high-priest. 
He  shows  that  the  Holy  Ghost  had  long  before  taught,  th-it 
the  Levitical  priesthood  was  not  sufficient  to  secure  the  great- 
ends  to  which  the  priestly  office,  in  its  nature,  has  regard,  and 
that  it  was,  therefore,  to  be  continued  but  for  a  season,  after 
which  it  should  give  place  to  one  that  would  possess,  in  reality 
all  the  power  that  this  had  only  represented  in  shadow.  A 
new  priesthood,  it  had  been  signified,  was  to  be  introduced 
after  the  order  of  M>  /</ii*«/>'k;  and  the  priestly  character  of 
that  man  had  been  so  ordered,  in  the  wise  providence  of  God, 
as  to  evince  symbolically  that  this  new  priesthood,  of  which  it 
was  thus  the  mystical  pattern,  should  have  incomparably  more 
'jxcellence  than  that  which  distinguished  the  -Jewish  state. 
The  priests  under  the  law  were  made  without  an  oath ;  but 
this  one,  who  was  after  the  order  of  Melehisedek,  with  an  oath, 
by  which  solemnity  on  the  part  of  Go-.l,  his  office  was  shown 
«j  be  far  more  important  than  theirs.  They  were  many,  not 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  9"2'6 

U-ing  suffered  to  continue  by  reason  of  death ;  but  this  man, 
lu-rau.se  he  continueth  ever,  hath  an  unchangeable  priesthood. 
']  hry  had  infirmity  and  sin  of  their  own ;  he  is  altogether 
ho/i/,  harmless  and  undefiled.  (Heb.  vii.  1 — 28.)  Yet,  though 
.HO  glorious  in  his  nature,  he  was  not  unqualified  to  fed  for 
those  on  whose  behalf  he  has  undertaken  to  act.  To  be  fit  for 
uis  work,  he  clothed  himself  with  the  nature  of  man,  so  as  to 
become  familiar  with  all  its  infirmities  and  miseries,  only  with 
Out  sin.  Thus  he  was  qualified  to  represent  that  nature  in  his 
mediatorial  agency,  and  at  the  same  time  to  sympathize  with 
it  in  its  weaknesses  and  sorrows.  In  that  he  himself  hath  .-uf 
fered  being  tempted,  he  is  able  to  succour  them  that  aro 
tempted,  and  can  be  touched  in  all  points  with  the  feeling  of 
their  infirmities.  (Heb.  ii.  14—18,  iv.  14 — 16,  v.  1 — 9.) 


CHAPTER  V. 
SACRIFICES  AND  OTHER  RELIGIOUS  OFFERINGS. 

SACRIFICE  has  been  defined  to  be  some, 
thing  that  is  offered  immediately  to  God 
in  such  a  way  as  to  be  consumed  or 
chanycd  into  some  other  form.  Thus, 
animals  were  sacrificed  when  they 
were  presented  to  God  by  being 
solemnly  killed,  and  either  altoge- 
ther, or  in  part,  burned  upon  some 
sort  of  altar;  and  so  was  wine, 
when  it  was  offered  by  being  solemnly  poured  out.  The  Jew- 
ish law  prescribed  many  sacrifices,  as  well  as  various  other 
religious  offerings. 


SECTION  I. 

DIFFERENT   KINDS   OF   SACRED   OFFERINGS    IN    USE 
AMONG   THE   JEWS. 

SACRED  offerings  of  different  kinds  were  common  long  before 
the  age  of  Mobes,  evn  from  the  earliest  period  of  the  world 
Kvery  one  that  has  e«i-r  road  the  Bible  knows  that,  sacrifices 
were  in  use  directly  after  the  full,  and  all  along  down  to  tht 
time  when  the  Jewish  church  wa<  separated  from  the  ref»t  of  tbi 


S24  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

world.  Wo  r^ad  of  altars  and  priests.  We  have  notices  >f 
diffcn  nt  /./..'/>  «.i'  .sacrifices.  (Gen.  iv.  3,4,  viii.  20,  xxxi.  54.) 
We  read  of  clean  and  imr/nni  animals.  ((Jen.  vii.  2.)  W>- 
read  also  of  Ji/ •.-.'//////.<  and  t!tln'*  being  eunsrrrated  to  God 
(Gen.  iv.  4,  xiv.  20,  xxviii.  22.)  In  the  establishment  of  the 
Jewish  economy,  however,  a  more  regular  and  extensive  syx^m 
of  sacrifices  and  religious  oife rings  was  instituted.  The  num- 
ber of  them  was  increased ;  the  different  kinds  of  them  more 
can-fully  distinguished;  and  the  whole  manner  of  them  pre- 
scribed with  particular  and  solemn  direction. 

Some  of  the  sacrifices  appointed  by  the  Jewish  law  were 
bloody,  requiring  the  death  of  animals :  others  were  no*,  so, 
consisting  of  cakes,  meal,  wine,  &c. 

BLOODY  OFFERINGS. 

The  only  animals  that  might  be  used  in  sacrifice  were  those 
of  the  ox-kind,  simp,  //o«As,  /m-t/>  -</</rfs,  and  young  JWMMl*. 
They  were  to  be  in  all  respects  free  from  blemish  or  defect, 
because  God  ought  to  be  served  with  the  best  offerings  that 
man  can  bring.  If  we  withhold  from  him  our  highest  regard, 
and  worship  him  only  with  a  sort  of  halfway  religion,  devot- 
ing our  chief  time,  care  and  thought  to  the  world,  while  with 
little  or  no  feeling  we  content  ourselves  with  just  so  many 
outward  duties  of  piety  as  are  needed  to  keep  a  sleepy  con- 
science quiet,  we  do  but  insult  the  greatest  and  best  of  all 
beings,  and  provoke  his  sore  displeasure.  "  Cursed  be  the 
deceiver,"  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  "  which  hath  in  his  flock 
a  male,  and  voweth,  and  sacrificeth  unto  the  Lord  a  corrupt 
thing!1'  (Mai.  i.  8,  13,  14.)  For  one  particular  class  of  sacri- 
fices male  victims  alone  were  allowed,  except  in  the  case  of 
birds,  where  the  distinction  was  not  regarded.  Except  in  the 
case  of  birds  also,  the  victims  were  required  to  be  not  less  than 
eight  days,  nor  more  than  three  years,  old.  The  sheep  and 
goats  that  were  sacrificed  were  commonly  a  year  old  :  the  bul- 
locks thiee  years.  Wild  beasts  were  not  offered  in  sacrifice  : 
hence  that  expression,  to  intimate  that  no  religious  sacredness 
was  to  be  imagined  in  the  slaying  of  animals  in  certain  cases ; 
"  Even  as  the  roebuck  and  the  hart  is  eaten,  so  shall  thou  eat 
them;  the  unclean  and  the  clean  shall  eat  of  them  alike." 
(Deut.  xii.  15,  21,  22.) 

According  to  the  law  of  Moses,  sacrifices  could  not  be 
offered  upon  the  altar,  except  by  the  priests  :  nor  at  any  other 
place  than  in  the  Court  of  God's  Sanctuary,  the  tabernacle 
first,  and  afterwards  the  temple.  (Deut.  xii.  5—28.) 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  325 

Animal-sacrifices  were  of  four  general  kinds :  vir.  Burnt' 
Offering*,  Sin-Ojfcrinys,  Trespass- Offerings,  and  Peace-Offer- 
inys.  We  have  a  particular  account  of  these  in  the  first  seven 
chapters  of  Leviticus.  The  three  kinds  first  mentioned  had 
an  i.rpiatory  virtue;  that  is,  they  made  atonement  far  those 
that  offered  them.  The  Peace-offerings  were  more  particularly 
sacrifices  expressive  ofyratitude  and  praise,  for  mercies  received, 
or  of  supplication  for  mercies  desired.  Burnt-offerings,  how- 
ever, were  not  exclusively  expiatory  in  their  character,  but 
had  iu  them  also  a  meaning  of  thankful  and  adoring  worship 
presented  to  the  Most  High  :  and  in  the  nature  of  every  class, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  are  to  suppose  that  some  regard  was 
had  to  the  guilt  of  sin,  which  called  for  the  shedding  of  blood, 
before  man  could  be  accepted  with  God  in  any  service.  BI>><#1 
poured  out  in  sacrifice  of  any  sort,  could  have  no  meaning 
other  than  that  of  atonement.  It  was  solemnly  consecrated  by 
the  Lord  to  be  an  expiation  for  the  soul,  and  accordingly  never 
flowed  about  the  altar  without  a  design  of  calling  to  remem- 
brance the  existence  of  sin,  and  symbolically  washing  away  its 
evil.  (Lev.  xvii.  1 — 14.) 

1.  BURNT-OFFERINGS.  These  are  sometimes  styled  holo- 
causts, that  is,  offerings  wholly  burned,  because  all  the  flesh 
of  the  victims  employed  in  them  was  consumed  by  the  fire 
upon  the  altar.  The  animals  used  for  them  might  not  be,  ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  birds,  any  other  than  males.  The  sacrifices 
that  were  in  use  before  the  time  of  Moses  seem  to  have  been 
most  generally  of  this  sort.  They  appear  to  have  been  expres- 
sive of  religious  worship  in  its  widest  nature ;  so  as  to  be  em- 
ployed in  it  with  equal  propriety,  when  it  was  exercised  in  the 
way  of  praising  God  for  his  past  mercies,  or  in  the  way  of  im- 
ploring his  favour  and  blessing,  or  of  deprecating  his  displea- 
sure, for  time  to  come.  They  were  offered  to  God  as  the 
Maker,  Preserver  and  Governor  of  the  Universe,  worthy  of 
ill  honour  and  adoration ;  and  were  designed  to  recommend 
those  that  presented  them  to  his  holy  regard,  and  to  make  thciv 
M  rvicc.s  of  praise  or  prayer  acceptable  in  his  sight,  which,  by 
reason  of  sin,  they  could  not  be,  without  the  &he<l<lin<j  <>f  blood. 
Such  offerings  are  said  in  the  law  to  make  atonement  for  the 
person  that  presented  them  ;  but  no  particular  cases  of  sin  are 
mentioned  for  which  tJiry  are  to  be  brought  to  the  altar.  They 
seem  to  have  had  reference,  in  this  respect,  to  the yeneral sin- 
fuliies»s  of  In-art  and  lifer  of  which  a  man  ought  to  be  conscious 
in  his  own  bosom,  and  for  which  he  should  continually  t'ee.l 
tliat  he  needs  to  have  his  soul  purged  by  sacrifice.  We  have 
an  account  of  the  manner  of  the  burnt  offering  sacrifice  in  the 


82«  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

lirst  chapter  of  Leviticus.  There  we  are  informed  how  the 
offerer  was  required  to  l)ring  his  victim  to  the  front  of  the 
Sanctuary,  beside  the  brazen  altar,  and  solemnly  to  lay  his 
hand  upon  its  head,  and  then  to  kill  it  before  the  Lord  ;  how 
the  priests  were  to  take  the  blood  in  a  proper  vessel,  and 
sprinkle  it  round  about  upon  the  altar;  how  all  the  parts  of  it, 
after  the  skin  was  taken  off,  were  laid  in  order  upon  the  wood 
and  fire  of  the  sacred  hearth  ;  and  how  the  whole  was  consumed, 
an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord. 

2.  SIN-OFFERINGS.  These  were  altogether  expiatory,  an.l 
were  to  be  presented  for  purtinihtr  cases  of  transgression.  We 
have  an  account  of  the  manner  of  them  in  the  fourth  chapter 
of  Leviticus.  The  victims  used  for  them  were  different,  ac- 
cording to  the  character  of  the  offerer.  A  bullock  was  ap- 
pointed for  the  purpose  when  atonement  was  to  be  made  for 
the  high-priest,  or  for  the  people  in  general ;  a  male  goat, 
when  a  civil  magistrate  was  the  offender;  and  a  female  one,  or 
a  lamb,  when  the  guilty  person  was  a  common  individual  of 
the  nation.  If  the  person  happened  to  be  so  poor  that  he 
could  not  furnish  a  kid  or  a  lamb,  he  was  required  to  bring  to 
the  altar  two  turtle-doves,  or  two  young  pigeons ;  one  of  which 
was  made  a  burnt-offering,  and  the  other  a  sin-offering.  If 
he  was  too  poor  even  for  this,  he  was  still  not  excused ;  but 
had  to  present  an  offering  for  his  siu,  of  mere  flour,  unaccom- 
panied with  oil  or  incense.  The  victim  was  presented  and 
slain  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  case  of  burnt-onVrin<:>. 
Its  parts,  however,  were  disposed  of  differently.  When  it  was 
offered  for  the  high-priest,  or  for  the  whole  congregation,  the 
ministering  priest  was  required  to  carry  some  of  the  bfood  int» 
the  Holy  Place,  there  to  sprinkle  it  with  his  finger  seven  time.- 
tjolemnly,  toward  the  veil  of  the  Holy  of  holies,  and  to  stain 
with  it  the  horns  of  the  golden  altar  of  incense;  alter  which, 
he  returned  and  poured  out  all  the  rest  of  it  at  the  bottom  of 
the  other  altar  without.  Then  the  fat  of  the  animal  only  was 
consumed  in  the  sacrificial  fire,  while  all  its  other  [arts  were 
borne  forth  without  the  camp,  to  an  appointed  place,  and  there 
burned  together.  But  when  the  sin-ofTerinir  was  presented  by 
the  ruler,  or  by  one  of  the  common  people,  the  ceremonie.- 
were  not  equally  solemn.  The  blood  then  was  not  carried 
into  the  Holy  Place ;  it  was  enough  to  stain  the  horns  of  the 
israzen  altar  with  it  before  pouring  it  out.  The  flesh  too, 
ufter  the  fat  was  consumed,  was  not  carried  without  the  i-amj. 
and  burned,  but  was  given  to  the  priests  to  be  eaten  in  tlir 
Court  of  the  Sanctuary.  The  eating  of  it  was  a  religious  dutj 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  327 

that  might  not  be  neglected.     What  it  signified,  we  learn  from 
l^v.  x/l(i—20. 

3.  TKKSPASS-OFFKRINGS.  Of  these  we  have  an  account  in 
i  lie  fifth  and  sixth  chapters  of  Leviticus.  Like  the  sin-offer 
ings,  which  they  resembled  in  many  particulars,  they  were  al- 
together expiatory,  and  might  not  be  offered  at  any  time  a  man 
chose  of  his  own  free  will  to  bring  one,  as  was  allowed  and 
encouraged  in  the  case  of  burnt-offerings  and  peace-offerings, 
l>ut  were  to  be  presented  only  for  particular  offences;  and 
when  these  offences  occurred  they  could  not  be  withheld,  with- 
out exposing  the  offender  to  the  punishment  of  wilful  trans- 
gression. They  were  never  offered  for  the  whole  congregation, 
as  we  have  seen  the  sin-offerings  sometimes  were,  but  merely 
for  single  individuals.  The  common  victim  used  was  a  ram. 
The  ceremonies  of  sacrifice  were  the  same  with  those  that  were 
ob-erved  in  the  common  cases  of  sin-offerings;  only  the  blood 
was  sprinkled  round  about  upon  the  altar,  and  no  mention  ifi 
made  of  its  being  put  on  the  horns  of  it.  The  fiVsh  was  to  be 
2aten  by  the  priests. 

What  was  the  general  distinction  between  offences  that 
called  for  sin-offerings  and  those  that  called  tor  trespass-offer- 
ings, has  been  much  disputed  among  learned  men,  and  seems 
to  be,  on  the  whole,  beyond  satisfactory  determination.  Some 
have  thought,  that  trespass-offerings  were  to  be  made  in  cases 
where  there  was  a  suspicion,  but  not  a  clear  certainty,  that  an 
offence  had  been  committed;  and  sin-offerings,  in  cases  where, 
though  at  first  the  offence  was  unknown,  it  was  afterwards 
understood.  Sins,  according  to  some,  were  offences  of  a  more 
serious  character ;  trespasses,  such  as  were  of  lighter  evil.  One 
of  the  most  learned  men  the  world  ever  produced  has  told  us, 
that  irexpa&ses  in  this  case  were  offences  of  commission,  such 
as  violated  the  law  by  doing  what  it  forbade  to  be  done ;  and 
that  tins,  on  the  other  hand,  were  offences  of  omission,  such 
as  left  undone  what  the  law  required  to  be  performed.  Another, 
equally  learned,  has  assured  us,  that  it  was  just  the  other  way; 
that  the  vim  were  the  faults  of  ro//iW.<x/V>?i,  and  the  trenpa>»e» 
-udi  as  consisted  in  '/ntsxtrm.  Both  opinions  seem  to  be  with- 
in t  foundation,  as  well  as  those  that  have  been  mentioned  first. 
Another  opinion  is,  that  under  the  name  of  tr'-*pas*e»,  were 
comprehended  cases  of  two  general  kinds;  viz.  such  as  found 
a  man's  conscience  in  doubt  whether  he  had  not  committed  an 
offence,  which,  if  certainly  known,  would  have  called  for  a  MM- 
onYring  ;  and  such  as  were  offences  of  that  nature,  that  they 
injured  a  man's  neighbour:  while  xi»*,  or  those  fault*  tha' 
required  sin-offerings,  are  supposed  to  have  been  such  Iran* 


328  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

gressioas  of  the  l:iw  as  did  not  directly  affect  a  felLw-being 
but  had  the  whole  reason  of  their  unlawfulness  in  their  con- 
trariety to  the  pleasure  of  God,  and  which,  l>eing  done  in  igno- 
rance, or  without  thought,  were  afterwards  clearly  discovered 
to  conscience.  Lastly,  it  has  been  supposed  by  others,  thai 
no  general  distinction  between  these  two  classes  of  offences  is 
to  be  inquired  after ;  that  the  distribution  of  particular  offences 
to  one  and  to  the  other  was  made  arbitrarily,  or  in  compliance 
with  tht!  common  usage  of  speech,  concerning  the  reason  of 
which  it  must  be  idle  to  seek  information  ;  and  that,  therefore, 
we  are  to  rest  satisfied  with  the  statement,  as  we  find  it  in  the 
Hible,  that  certain  delinquencies  which  are  mentioned  were 
reckoned  as  belonging  to  one  class,  and  certain  others  to  tht 
other,  without  attempting  to  discover  any  specific  difference  of 
nature  that  may  satisfactorily  account  for  the  arrangement. 

4.  PEACE-OFFERINOS.  The  manner  of  these  is  told  in  the 
third  chapter  of  Leviticus.  The  animals  used  for  them  were 
bullocks,  heifers,  rains,  ewes,  or  goats :  birds  were  not  sacri- 
ficed in  this  way.  Peace-offerings,  as  we  learn  from  Lev.  vii. 
11 — 20,  were  presented,  either  in  ifccMtyUtMM  tor  some  spe- 
cial mercy  received,  or  in  the  way  of  gujiji/ictttfoii  for  some 
special  mercy  desired.  Sometimes,  when  a  person  was  in  dis- 
tress, he  accompanied  his  prayers  to  God  for  help  with  a  rmr, 
that  he  would  afterwards  present  an  offering,  if  preserved  or 
prospered,  and  sometimes,  of  a  man's  free  will  he  presented 
his  offering  beforehand,  together  with  his  prayers  for  Oivjne 
help  or  blessing.  Hence  arose  the  distinction  of  ,-mr  >, /•/"•/•//* </„• 
and  voluntary  offcriny*,  though  both  of  these;  had  in  them  the 
nature  of  supplication-sacrifices,  and  so  differed  from  the  other 
class  of  peace-offerings  that  were  designed  to  express  gratitude 
for  favours  already  enjoyed. — In  the  case  of  these  offerings, 
the  person  that  presented  the  victim,  as  in  the  other  rises  al- 
ready considered,  brought  it  to  the  altar,  and  laid  his  hand 
upon  its  head  with  solemn  ceremony  before  the  Lord.  It  was 
not  slain,  however,  to  the  north  of  the  altar,  as  the  victims 
offered  in  the  other  sacrifices  were,  but  to  the  south  of  it. 
After  it  was  killed,  the  priests  sprinkled  the  altar  round  about 
with  its  blood,  and  placed  its  fat  upon  the  sacred  tire,  to  he  a 
sacrlico  of  sweet  sarour  unto  the  Lord;  which  being  done, 
the  tiesh  was  divided  between  the  priest  and  the  offerer — the 
priest  received  for  his  part  the  breast  and  the  right  shoulder, 
ami  the  offerer  had  all  the  rest.  The  meat  was  not  allowed, 
however,  to  be  carried  away  and  laid  up  for  common  use,  but 
was  required  to  lie  all  eaten  on  the  same  day  that  it  was  of. 
fered,  or,  at  farthest,  on  the  day  after;  and  if  any  part  of  it 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  229 

Happened  to  be  left  till  the  third  day,  it  was  to  be  burned. 
Thus,  in  these  peace-offerings,  a  communion  of  friendship  was 
celebrated  between  God  and  his  people,  and  he  himself,  as  it 
were,  and  his  ministers,  and  those  that  worship  him  m  this 
way,  partook  together  of  the  same  sacred  feast.  At  the  same 
time,  as  already  intimated,  the  death  of  the  victim,  after  the 
woiemn  laying  of  hands  upon  its  head,  and  the  sprinkliny  of  its 
Hood  upon  the  altar,  called  to  remembrance  the  guilt  of  those 
who  aspired  to  this  sacred  and  precious  privilege,  and  expres- 
sively signified,  that  without  atonement  God  never  can  hold 
friendly  intercourse  in  any  way  with  sinful,  fallen  man. 

The  number  of  peace-offerings  sacrificed  every  year  was  very 
great.  In  addition  to  those  that  were  presented  without  obli- 
gation, as  piety  or  formality  led  individuals,  from  time  to 
time,  to  come  before  the  Lord  in  this  way,  a  vast  multitude 
were  made  necessary  by  the  law.  From  Deut.  xii.  17,  18,  xv. 
19 — 23,  and  xiv.  22,  23,  it  appears,  that  not  only  the  tithes 
of  every  farmer's  agricultural  produce,  with  a  portion  of  its 
several  first-fruits,  but  the  firstlings  also  of  bis  whole  flock  and 
herd,  were  to  be  consecrated  to  God  as  peace-offerings,  and 
solemnly  feasted  upon  year  by  year;  only  when  the  animals 
happened  to  have  blemishes  in  them,  they  were  considered 
unfit  for  sacrifice,  and  might  be  used  in  the  common  way,  for 
food,  at  home ;  in  all  other  cases,  they  were  either  to  be  taken 
themselves  to  the  place  of  God's  Sanctuary,  or  turned  into 
money,  which  should  then  be  laid  out  for  other  victims  in  their 
stead,  and  so  entirely  consumed  according  to  the  manner  of 
thanksgiving  sacrifices.  In  these  sacred  feasts,  not  only  the 
families  of  those  to  whom  the  offerings  belonged,  servants  and 
all,  were  to  participate,  but  it  was  enjoined  also,  that  others, 
who  were  without  portion  of  their  own,  should  be  remembered, 
and  invited  to  take  part  in  their  joyous  celebration.  The  hos- 
pitality thus  recommended  and  commanded  was  powerfully 
enforced,  at  the  same  time,  by  the  consideration,  that  all  the 

E revision  made  for  these  entertainments,  which  was  most 
beral,  was  to  be  consumed  on  their  several  occasions,  and 
could  not,  after  the  second  day,  be  used  at  all :  thus  even  those 
that  in  other  cases  were  niggardly  and  inhospitable,  could  not 
well  refuse  to  be  generous  and  friendly  enough  in  their  peace- 
offering  feasts.  How  much  these  feasts  of  friendship  must  have 
tended  to  promote  good  feelings  among  the  people,  and  to  se- 
cure proper  regard  to  the  lower  classes  of  society,  and  such  aa 
were  shut  out  from  its  more  fortunate  advantages,  the  servant, 
the  poor,  the  orphan,  the  widow  and  the  stranger,  it  i.-  needle 
to  suggest. 

ss* 


330  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

Under  the  general  class  of  sacrifices  of  which  we  are  m  w 
speaking,  arc  properly  to  be  reckoned  those  by  moans  of  wliirb 
it  was  usual  to  ratify  and  confirm  (.'ownaiits.  These,  indeed, 
were  attended  with  some  ceremonies  peculiar  to  themselves, 
but  had  in  them,  on  the  whole,  the  nature  of  pc<i<-<  -<,jj, •/•/>•»/* 
The  custom  of  confirming  covenants  in  this  way  had  its  origin 
very  far  back  in  antiquity.  The  manner  of  the  solemnity,  it 
sci  ins,  was  for  the  persons  who  wished  to  enter  into  covenant. 
to  slay  and  divide  the  victim,  or  victims,  employed ;  to  place 
the  parts  opposite  each  other;  and  then  to  pass  through  be- 
tween them,  using,  at  the  same  time,  we  may  suppose,  some 
form  of  words  suited  to  the  transaction.  The  <lii-i.<!»n  of  the 
victim  expressed,  symbolically,  the  punishment  which  ought 
to  fall  upon  him  who  should  afterwards  violate  the.  agreement, 
while  the  offering  of  it  in  sacrifice  to  God  was,  in  fact,  calling 
upon  him  to  witness  what  was  engaged,  and  to  take  vengeance 
in  future  on  either  of  the  parties  that  might  prove  false  to  it ; 
thus  laying  conscience  under  the  obligation  of  a  most  solemn 
3ath.  Part  of  the  flesh,  it  is  to  be  supposed,  was  afterwards 
converted  into  a  feast,  of  which  both  parties  partook  together, 
in  token  of  friendly  agreement  and  confidence.  It  was  in  con 
formity  with  human  usage  in  this  thing,  that  God  condescended 
to  confirm  his  covenant  with  Abraham  in  the  remarkable  man- 
ner that  is  recorded  in  Gen.  xv.  8 — 17,  causing  a  flame  and  a 
smoke,  as  the  sign  of  his  own  presence,  to  pass  in  vision  be- 
tween the  parts  of  the  victims  prepared  for  the  occasion.  We 
have  notice  of  these  Covenant  sacrifices  also  in  Jer.  xxiv.  18, 
19  ;  where  it  is  intimated,  that  the  ceremony  just  mentioned 
was  used  in  a  solemn  covenant  entered  into  by  Xedekiah  and 
the  people  of  Jerusalem  before  the  Lord.  Tiny  cut  the  <-nlf  In 
twain,  it  is  said,  and  passed  between  the  parts  thereof.  From 
this  case,  thus  incidentally  noticed,  it  would  seem  that  other 
covenants  among  the  Jews  were  confirmed  in  like  manner,  al- 
though it  is  not  expressly  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  when  other 
cases  are  spoken  of.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  sacrifices  were 
habitually  made  use  of  on  such  occasions.  (Gen.  xxxi.  53,  51, 
1  Sam.  xi.  15,  Ps.  1.  5.)  In  the  great  covenant  which  <jol 
made  with  the  Israelites  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai,  .M->-' •- 
sprinkled  the  people  with  the  blood  of  the  sacrifices.  (Kx. 
xxiv.  3—8,  Heb.  ix.  18—23.) 

The  sacrifice  of  the  Passover  lamb  seems  to  have  had  in  it 
tlso  much  of  the  nature  of  a  peace-offering.  It  had,  however 
a  peculiar  character  belonging  to  itself.  A  more  particular 
consideration  of  it  will  come  in  our  way  hereafter. 

As  w«  have  already  had  occasion  to  uotke,  some  sacrifice 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  331 

*rere  offered  by  single  individuals  for  their  own  advantage, 
and  others  were  offered  in  behalf  of  the  nation  as  a  whole. 
Those  of  the  first  sort,  if  the  case  in  Lev.  xvi.  6,  be  exempted, 
were  not  regulated  by  times  and  seasons;  but  were  presented, 
either  freely  at  any  time  a  man's  heart  moved  him  to  rendet 
such  worship  to  God,  or  in  conformity  with  the  ri^ui'min-ni 
of  the  law,  when  persons  were  brought  into  certain  circum- 
stances, which,  according  to  the  Divine  will,  called  for  particu- 
lar offerings,  in  the  way  either  of  atonement  for  sin,  «.r  "f 
thankful  acknowledgment  of  the  Lord's  mercy.  Of  such  of- 
ferings as  were  presented  freely,  various  notices  are  found 
throughout  the  Bible ;  of  the  others  that  were  required  from 
individuals  in  particular  circumstances,  besides  the  cases  stated 
in  the  4th,  5th,  and  6th  chapters  of  Leviticus,  we  have  in- 
stances in  Lev.  xii.  6,  8,  xiv.  10 — 31,  xv.  14,  15,  29,  HO,  xix. 
21,  Num.  vi.  10 — 21. — The  other  general  class  of  offerings, 
viz.  such  as  were  made  in  behalf  of  the  whole  nation,  were 
all,  except  the  particular  cases  noticed  in  Lev.  iv.  13,  14. 
Num.  xv.  22 — 26,  and  xix.  5 — 10,  assigned  to  certain  times, 
and  had  their  regular  periods  when  they  were  to  be  performed. 
Such  were  the  daily  morning  and  evening  sacrifices,  (Ex.  xxix. 
38 — 41  ;)  the  Sabbath-day  sacrifices;  the  new  moon  sacrifices, 
and  the  sacrifices  that  belonged  to  those  three  great  festivals. 
For  an  account  of  all  these,  .see  the  28th  and  29th  chapters  of 
Numbers.  The  paschal  lambs,  sacrificed  in  vast  multitudes 
on  the  first  day  of  the/east  of  unleavened  bread,  were  offeree! 
severally  in  behalf  of  single  families  or  small  companies.  The 
victim  required  to  be  slain  in  cases  of  uncertain  murder,  was 
sacrificed  in  behalf  of  a  particular  city  or  town.  (Deut.  xxi.  1 — 
9.)  This  case,  as  well  as  the  case  of  the  red  fief/er  to  which 
reference  has  just  now  been  made,  was  not  in  all  respects  a 
regular  mn-rifiria/  "tf'rriny,  inasmuch  as  the  victim  was  not 
brought  to  the  altar  and  there  killed;  both  heifers,  however, 
had  in  them  the  nature  of  expiatory  sacrifices. 

The  regular  stated  sacrifices  which  the  law  required  to  be 
offered  for  the  whole  nation,  in  the  course  of  each  year,  were 
as  follow:  viz.  1.  On  everyday,  two  lambs;  amounting  alto- 
gether to  at  least  730.  2.  On  every  Sabbath,  two  additional 
l.-iinl  - ;  making  altogether  104.  3.  On  the  first  day  of  every 
nii'i.  li.  two  bullocks,  one  ram,  seven  lambs,  and  one  goat; 
amounting  in  the  year  to  at  least  24  bullocks,  12  rams,  84 
lambs,  and  12  goats.  4.  On  each  of  the  seven  days  of  the 
feast  of  unleavened  bread,  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  every  new 
moon  just  stated,  (Num.  xxviii.  19 — 25,)  and  besides,  an  ad 
ditional  lamb  on  the  second  day  with  the  sheaf  of  first-l'raiUt. 


832  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

(Lev.  xxiii  12 ;)  making  altogether  14  bullocks,  7  rams,  ,>C 
lambs,  and  7  goats.  5.  On  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  same 
also  as  for  each  new  moon,  (Num.  xxviii.  2li — 31,)  and  be- 
sides, with  the  two  wave  loaves,  seven  lambs,  one  bullock,  two 
nuns,  ;md  a  goat,  together  with  two  other  lambs  for  a  sacrifice 
nf  jo '.-ice-offering,  (Lev.  xxiii.  18,  19;)  making  altogether 
.'$  bullocks,  3  rams,  16  lambs,  and  2  goats.  6.  On  the  Feast 
of  Trumpets,  one  bullock,  one  ram,  seven  lambs,  and  a  goat. 
7.  On  the  great  day  of  Atonement,  the  same,  (Num.  xxix.  7 — 
11,)  and  besides  a  ram  and  a  goat  when  the  high-priest  per- 
formed his  awful  duty  of  cnt.erin<r  tin-  Most  Holy  Place.  (Lev. 
xvi.  5,)  making  together,  1  bullock,  2  rams,  7  lambs,  ami  '2 
^<>.iN.  On  each  of  the  eight  days  of  the  Feast  of  the  Taberna- 
cles a  number  of  different  victims,  equal  altogether  to  7 1  bul- 
locks, 15  rams,  105  lambs,  and  8  goats.  (Num.  xxix.  12 — 38.) 
-  —Let  us  now  put  the  whole  together,  thus  : 

B.     R.  L.     0. 

1.  Daily  Sacrifices  for  365  Days, —    —  7W     — 

2.  Sacrifices  for  52  Sabbaths, —    —  104    — 

3.  Sacrifices  for  12  New  Moons, 24     12  84     12 

4.  Sacrifices  for  the  Passover, 14       7  50       7 

5.  Sacrifices  for  Pentecost, 3       3  10       2 

6.  Sacrifices  for  the  Feast  of  Trumpets, 11  71 

7.  Sacrifices  for  the  Day  of  Atonement 1272 

8.  Sacrifices  for  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles, 71     15  105       8 

114     40  1103     32 

Thus  many  were  the  victims  whose  blood  was  shed  each 
year,  in  the  stated  services  of  the  sanctuary,  for  the  whole  con- 
gregation. The  goats,  in  all  these  cases,  were  siR-itflerin<_rs  ; 
and  the  other  animals,  except  in  the  one  instance  MtMod  in 
the  statement,  burnt-offerings.  The  blood  of  all  these  victims, 
however,  formed  only  a  small  part  of  the  whole  quantity  that 
was  poured  forth  in  the  sacred  court,  year  after  year,  from  the 
sacrifices  that  were  there  presented  before  Ihe  Lord.  The 
largest  stream  by  far  flowed  from  the  various  v  Jtims  that  were 
led  to  the  altar  as  private  offerings. 

SACRIFICES  THAT  WERE  NOT  BLOODY. 

Bloodless  sacrifices,  it  has  been  already  stated,  consisted  in 
meal,  cakes,  wine,  &c.  Of  this  class  were  the  MEAT-OFFKR- 
INOP,  and  the  DRINK-OFKEIUN»;S  that  were  in  many  cases 
required  to  accompany  them.  The  latter  were  never  presented 
separately  from  the  first,  and  in  all  common  cases  both  were 
found  joined  to  other  sacrifices  of  the  bloody  sort.  There  were, 


BIBLKJAL    ANTIQUITIES.  533 

however,  some  bloodies  sacrifices  that  were  offered  by  them- 
.selves  without  animal  victims.  We  may,  for  the  sake  of  order, 
distribute  all  into  three  classes,  as  follow. 

1.  Prescribed  iKftit-offerinys  oeOOMfNMMrf  irff/i  < truth-offer- 
ings. When  united  in  this  way,  they  were  always  attached 
to  particular  bloody  sacrifices.  In  Num.  xv.  1 — 12,  we  have 
a  statement  of  the  different  proportions  of  flour,  oil  and  wine, 
that  were  required  to  be  used  in  such  cases  for  different  vie 
tims.  It  seems,  that  the  animal  sacrifices  which  God  designed 
to  be  accompanied  with  such  offerings  as  we  are  speaking  of, 
were  all  peace-»ffvrin<js,  and  all  burnt-ojferinys  of  the  flock  or 
herd,  whether  for  individuals  or  for  the  whole  congregation. 
(Num.  xv.  3 ;  and  chap,  xxviii.  20.)  Birds  were  not  so 
accompanied,  except  in  one  case  where  they  were  substituted 
for  other  animals.  (Lev.  xiv.  31.)  Sin-offeriny*  and  trexjxiss- 
riffi'rlnys  of  every  kind  were  not  to  be  attended  even  with  any 
thing  of  the  sort;  unless  it  be  supposed,  that  in  the  single 
ease  of  the  leper's  purification  sacrifice,  mentioned  in  Lev.  xiv. 
10 — 20,  such  an  offering,  consisting  of  a  tenth-deal  of  flour 
with  a  proportion  of  oil  and  wine,  was  designed  for  each  of  the 
three  victims  used  on  the  occasion,  out  of  that  general  meat- 
offering which  is  there  noticed :  that,  the  case  was  thus,  we 
are  assured  by  the  Jewish  writers ;  but  it  seems  natural  and 
easy  enough  to  consider  all  that  moat-offering  as  a  rinyh.  one 
of  peculiar  character,  intended  particularly  to  accompany  the 
burnt-offering  victim  alone. 

2.  tltaJt-ajfesrwg*  rnlnninrili/  tuft/rd  to  other  sacrifices.  The 
offerings  of  the  first  class  just  considered  were  made  nn-emsury, 
in  the  eases  that  have  been  mentioned,  and  were  accurately 
determined  as  to  quantity  by  the  law  ;  but  these  which  we  are 
now  to  notice,  were  such  as  individuals  were  led  of  their  own 
free  will  to  present  at  the  altar,  with  their  bloody  offerings, 
over  and  above  what  was  absolutely  required  ;  or,  at  least, 
such  as,  although  they  were  directed  to  be  presented  in  certain 
v-iisi  s.  were  nevertheless  left  to  be  determined  as  to  their  form 
and  their  amount  by  the  offerers  themselves.  Of  this  sort 
are  to  be  reckoned  all  those  that  are  sjn.ken  «;f  in  the  secmid 
chapter  of  Leviticus.  From  I/jviticus  vii.  12,  13,  we  l-'arn 
that  sacrifices  of  this  sort  were  to  be  added  to  all  peace-offer* 
in;rs  for  thanksgiving.  No  mention  is  made  of  wine  being 
joined  to  them  :  though  no  doubt  it  was  often  used  with  vic- 
tims alnn^  with  which  they  were  brought  to  the  altar;  only, 
however,  as  belonging  to  those  other  meat-offerings  that  have 
been  already  noticed,  which  might  be  presented  at  the  same 
time,  and  not  a.-  having  any  thing  to  do  directly  with  the* 


¥34  B.BLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

thai  are  now  in  question.  Meat-offerings  of  the  first  class 
were  all  of  unbaked  flour  mingled  with  oil ;  but  these  undei 
consideration  might  be  either  thus  unbaked  or  baked  in  various 
ways,  and  sometimes  consisted  of  various  fruits  of  the  earth 
without  any  preparation.  A  portion  of  the  first-fruits,  toge 
ther  with  a  tenth  part  of  all  the  increase  of  the  field,  was  to  be 
every  year  employed  in  this  way.  (Deut.  xiv.  22 — 29,  xxvi. 
1-11.) 

3.  Independent  meat-offfrimja.  This  class  comprehends 
those  few  bloodless  sacrifices  that  were  appointed  to  be  offered, 
as  it  were,  upon  their  own  account,  without  being  attached  to 
any  of  the  bloody  class,  or  indebted  to  them  for  the  occusi<  >n.s 
on  which  they  were  to  be  presented.  These  were  either  for 
the  whole  congregation,  or  for  particular  individuals. — Of  the 
first  sort  were,  1st.  The  twelve  loaves  of  &h<  ir-l,ri<t<l,  set  forth 
before  the  Lord  in  the  Holy  Place.  2d.  The  sheaf  oflar/'i/ 
offered  on  the  second  day  of  the  Passover.  (Lev.  xxiii.  10.) 
3d.  The  tico  loaves  of  the  first-fruits,  offered  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost.  (Lev.  xxiii.  17.)  With  these  last,  victims  were 
indeed  sacrificed ;  but  they  held  only  a  secondary  place  in  the 
solemnities  ;  while  the  sheaf,  in  one  case,  and  the  loaves,  in  the 
Dther,  were  of  chief  wad  i>n/'j»  n</>>it  consequence — Of  the 
second  sort,  such  as  were  offered  for  individuals  were,  1st. 
The  offering  of  joilim*!/,  of  which  we  have  an  account  in  Num. 
v.  15,  18,  25,  'J(>,  that  was  to  have  with  it  neither  oil  nor  in- 
tense. 2d.  The  poor  man's  *itt-f/ff'<  riny,  mentioned  in  Lev.  v. 
11,  that  was  to  be  offered  in  like  manner,  without  oil  or  in- 
cense, when  a  man  was  not  able  to  provide  for  himself  even  a 
pair  of  doves  or  pigeons.  3d.  Th<  ///vV  >•////  wnt-nfi<-rin<j,  which 
Aaron  and  his  sons,  it  is  said,  were  to  present  in  the  day  of 
their  anointing.  (Lev.  vi.  20 — 23.)  Jewish  tradition  tells  us 
that  this  last  was  two-fold ;  being  required  of  every  priest 
when  he  first  entered  upon  his  sacred  office,  and  being  required 
besides  of  the  high-priest  every  day  during  all  the  time  of  his 
ministry  ;  but  this  does  not  clearly  appear  from  the  Scriptures, 

Every  meat-offering  was  required  to  be  seasoned  witli  salt 
and  might  not,  on  any  ac  :ount,  have  in  it  a  particle  of  honey, 
uor  yet,  in  all  common  cases,  a  particle  of  leaven.  The  two 
loaves  offered  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  were  leavened,  and  we 
ivad  that  leavened  bread  was  brought  also  with  sacrifices  of 
thanksgiving,  together  with  the  unleavened  cakes  and  wafers, 
(Lev.  vii.  13;)  but  no  part  of  such  offerings  could  be  pre- 
sented upon  the  altar;  the  universal  statute  was,  that  no  lea- 
ven, nor  any  honey,  was  to  be  burned  in  any  offering  of  the 
Lord  made  by  fire.  (Lev.  ii.  11.)  The  shew-bread  was  -u> 


1UBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  336 

oompauied  with  incense  without  oil  j  the  prescribed  meat- 
offering,  to  which  wiue  was  joined,  had  oil  without  incense; 
the  poor  man's  sin-offering,  the  offering  of  jealousy,  and  the 
sheaf  of  first-fruits,  had  neither  one  nor  the  other;  while  all 
the  rest  were  enriched  with  botn. — The  incense,  in  every  case, 
was  all  burned  upon  the  altar;  in  the  case  of  the  meat-offering 
presented  by  a  priest,  and  as  it  seems,  on  the  whole,  in  the 
case  of  all  those  of  the  first  class,  such  as  were  prescribed  and 
accompanied  with  wine,  the  whole  was  in  like  manner  given 
to  the  fin-;  but,  in  other  oa>es,  only  a  part  of  the  flour,  or 
bread  and  oil,  was  burned,  as  a  memorial  for  all,  while  the  re- 
mui rider  was  appropriated  to  the  priests,  as  a  gift  from  the 
Lord.  The  wiue,  when  it  was  used,  was  solemnly  poured  out 
at  the  bottom  of  the  altar. 

In  the  general  class  of  sacrifices  of  the  bloodless  sort,  is  to 
be  reckoned  also,  besides  those  that  have  been  styled  meat- 
off'-rings,  the  sacred  incense  that  was  offered  every  morning 
and  every  evening  on  the  golden  altar,  and  once  in  the  year 
presented  upon  a  censer  filled  with  coals,  within  the  Holiest 
of  all. 

FIRST-FRUITS,    FIRST-BORN,    TITHES,    VOW-GIFTS,    ETC. 

Besides  those  to  which  the  name  of  sacrifice  has  been  par- 
ticularly appropriated,  such  as  we  have  been  hitherto  consider- 
ing, there  were  other  sacred  offerings  appointed  in  the  Jewish 
system  that  claim  our  attention.  The  most  important  of  them 
were  of  four  principal  kinds. 

1.  FIKST-FRI  ITS.  The  first  sheaf  of  barley,  on  the  second 
day  of  the  Passover,  and  the  first  loaves  of  Pentecost,  were 
{in-sriitcd  to  God  as  offerings  for  the  whole  nation.  But  be- 
sides these,  offerings  of  all  sorts  of  first-fruits  were  required  to 
be  made,  year  after  year,  by  imln-iiltml*;  first-fruits  of  the 
harve.-t  and  the  vintage,  from  the  threshing-floor,  the  wine- 
press, the  oil-press,  and  the  honey -crowded  hive,  from  the  first 
baked  bread  of  the  new  crop  also,  and  from  the  fleecy  treasurer 
gathered  at  every  time  of  shearing  from  the  flock.  (Ex.  xxiii. 
in,  \um.  xv.  19 — 21.)  These  were  not  presented  at  rhe 
altar,  but  were  assigned  by  God,  to  whom  they  were  conse- 
cnted,  for  the  use  of  his  ministers,  the  priests.  (Num.  xviii. 
11 — 13.)  How  much  should  be  given  in  these  cases,  tin-  law 
left  each  person  to  decide  for  himself.  The  Jewish  doctors 
of  later  times,  however,  gave  it  as  their  judgment,  that  the 
smallest  proportion  which  a  man  might  conscientiously  allow, 
was  a  sixtieth  part  of  the  whole  produce  from  which  it  wa« 
taken. 


436  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

In  Dcut  xviii.  3,  we  find  the  following  statute  :  "  This  shaft 
be  the  priests'  due  from  the  people,  from  them  that  offer  "a 
eacrifiee,  whether  it  be  ox  or  sheep:  they  shall  give  unto  the 
priest  the  shoulder,  and  the  two  cheeks,  and  the  maw."  The 
word  here  translated,  offer  a  sacrifice,  has  at  times  a  moru 
general  meaning,  and  is  used  to  signify  the  slaying  of  animals, 
for  common  use,  in  cases  where  nothing  of  a  sacred  nature  was 
designed.  It  was  understood  accordingly ;  and,  as  it  would 
seem,  correctly  understood,  that  such  an  extent  of  meaning  be- 
longed to  it  in  this  present  case ;  and  so  it  was  the  practice 
throughout  the  nation,  as  we  are  informed,  on  good  authority, 
still  to  appropriate  the  parts  that  have  been  mentioned  to  the 
priests,  whenever,  on  any  occasion,  animals  were  killed  at  home 
only  for  the  purpose  of  ordinary  food.  This  gift  may  be 
looked  upon,  as  a  sort  of  first-fruit*  of  every  man's  meat,  be- 
fore it  might  be  used  for  the  table.  It  was  not  necessary, 
however,  that  this  should  be  carried  away  to  the  sanctuary;  it 
was  enough  if  it  was  given  to  some  one  of  the  priests  in  any 
place ;  and,  accordingly,  every  individual  used  to  give  it  to 
any  one  who  lived  near  him,  as  convenience  or  personal  ••egard 
determined  his  inclination. 

2.  The  FIRST-BORN.  Ever  after  the  awful  night  in  which 
the  Lord,  for  the  deliverance  of  his  people,  smote  all  the  first- 
born of  Egypt  with  death,  all  those  of  Israel  that  were  males, 
in  commemoration  of  that  event,  and  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  mercy  that  overwhelmed  them  not  at  that  time  with  the 
same  desolation,  were  consecrated  to  be,  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
the  property  of  God.  (Ex.  xiii.  2,  12 — 15.)  "When  the  Le- 
vites  were  separated  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  they 
were  substituted,  as  far  as  their  number  reached,  for  the  first- 
born males  of  the  whole  people  of  that  generation,  and  the 
cattle  which  they  then  owned,  for  all  the  firstlings  of  the  cattle 
belonging  to  the  nation  ;  and  thus,  at  the  same  time,  the 
priestly  office,  which  originally  was  the  right  of  the  first-born, 
was  transferred  and  confined  to  this  tribe.  As  on  that  occa- 
sion, however,  the  number  of  the  first-born  was  found  to  be 
somewhat  larger  than  that  of  the  Levites,  it  was  required  that 
the  273  persons  that  were  thus  left  without  substitutes,  should 
oe  redeemed  by  the  payment  of  a  certain  price  in  money  for 
Nvery  one.  (Num.  iii.  12,  13,  40 — 51.)  So,  ever  after,  all 
the  first-born  of  man  were  required  to  be  redeemed  in  like 
manner ;  and  the  redemption  money  became  a  part  of  the 
sacred  revenue  appointed  for  the  support  of  the  priests.  (Num 
xviii.  15,  16.)  A  child  could  not  be  redeemed  before  it  was  a 
ji- ii i tli  old,  and  generally  teas  not,  until  the  time  when  its  m<>- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  337 

iher's  purification  offering  was  to  be  presented,  which,  :n  the 
case  of  sons,  was  at  the  end  of  forty  days.  Thus,  when  the 
infant  Jesus  was  brought  for  the  first  time  to  the  temple,  two 
duties  enjoined  by  the  law  were  attended  to;  the  mother's 
sacrifice  was  offered,  and  the  child  was  redeemed.  (Luke  ii. 
22 — '24.)  The  first-born  of  such  beasts  as  might  be  used  in 
sacrifice  were  to  be  yielded  to  the  Lord,  without  the  liberty 
of  redemption  ;  and  after  their  blood  and  fat  were  given  to  the 
altar,  their  flesh  was  all  appropriated  to  the  priests.  (Num. 
xviii.  17,  18.)  The  first-born  of  other  animals,  such  AS  it  was 
unlawful  to  sacrifice,  might  be  redeemed;  though  a  rnaa  was 
not  Miyed  to  redeem  them,  as  in  the  case  of  a  first-born  sou. 
If  they  were  not  redeemed,  they  might  be  sold  or  destrjyed. 
(Ex.  xiii.  13,  Lev.  xxvii.  27.) 

3.  TITHES.  A  tenth  part  of  all  the  produce  of  every  Is- 
raelitish  farmer  was  to  be  consecrated,  in  addition  to  the  tribute 
already  noticed,  to  the  support  of  the  national  religion.  These 
tithes  were  appropriated  to  the  Levites,  as  their  salary,  who 
in  their  turn  were  required  to  give  a  tenth  of  all  that  they 
thus  received,  to  the  priests.  (Num.  xviii.  21 — 32.)  In  the 
case  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  the  owner  might  redeem  the 
tithe  that  was  due,  by  adding  a  fifth  part  to  what  was  con. 
side-red  its  proper  value;  whereby,  we  may  suppose,  he  niijrht 
gave  himself  the  trouble  of  transp< »rting  the  articles  to  the  place 
where  they  were  to  be  received.  In  the  case  of  cattle,  the 
same  privilege  was  not  allowed.  Animals  were  tithed  by 
being  made  to  pass,  one  by  one,  out  of  some  enclosure,  before 
a  person  appointed  to  number  them,  who  held  in  his  hand  a 
rod,  with  which  he  touched  every  tenth  one  as  it  came  along 
in  its  order,  and  thus  designated  it  for  the  Levites :  hence  th« 
expression  to  pass  under  the  rott,  applied  to  cattle  that  under 
went  tithing.  No  animal  thus  designated  might  be  changeil 
for  another;  if  a  man  was  found  guilty  of  making  such  an  ex 
change,  he  forfeited  both.  (Lev.  xxvii.  30 — 33,  Jer.  xxxii; 
13.)  Religious  tithes  were  in  use  long  before  the  time  of 
Muses;  as  we  may  learn  from  Abraham's  homage  to  Melt-hit**- 
ilek,  and  from  Jacob's  vow  on  his  way  to  Padan-Aram.  They 
were  in  use  also  among  almost  all  nations,  in  those  early  times. 
v  we  are  taught  by  ancient  history. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  state,  that  the  law  required 
»  tenth  part  of  every  husbandman's  agricultural  produce,  and 
i  portion  of  its  first-fruits  also,  together  with  the  firstlings  of 
his  flock  and  herd,  to  be  devoted  to  God  as  peace-offerinys,  and 
BO  turned  into  sacred  feasts  for  the  entertainment  uf  the  owner 
himself,  frith  his  family  and  others  recommended  to  his  hospi 


B5o  BIBLICAL    ANTJQ  U  1TI  K* 

inlity.  This  we  are  clearly  taught  in  Deut.  xii  17 — 19.  xiv 
22 — 2S,  and  xv.  19 — 22.  But  how  are  we  to  reconcile  this 
with  the  positive  and  explicit  declarations  found  in  other  jil.ir.^, 
as  we  have  just  seen,  that  the  tithes,  firstlings  and  first-fruity, 
were  to  be  given  to  the  Levites  and  priests?  Could  they  bj 
thus  appropriated,  and  yet  feasted  upon  by  those  that  presented 
them  ''.  There  seems  to  be  no  way  of  getting  clear  of  this  diffi- 
culty, but  by  inferring  that  there  was  a  double  appropriation 
of  each  of  these  sorts  of  offerings — thcjirxt  for  the  use  of  the 
priests  and  Levites,  and  the  second  for  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving 
to  be  celebrated  in  the  way  that  has  been "  noticed,  by  the 
owners  themselves.  Thus  we  are  to  suppose,  that  the  Jewish 
law  required  second  tithes,  wond  ftr.*t/iit</x,  (if  we  may  be  al- 
lowed the  term,)  and  second  first-fruit*.  That  we  are  not  told 
any  thing  expressly  about  the  appointment  of  these,  as  distinct 
from  those  of  the  first  class,  but  are  made  acquainted  with 
their  existence  merely  in  the  notice  that  is  given  of  their  nature 
and  use,  may  be  accounted  for  by  supposing  that  they  were  in 
common  use  before  the  time  of  Moses,  and  did  not  need,  there- 
fore, to  be  formally  distinguished.  They  are  spoken  of  as 
being  well  known ;  and  in  no  danger,  accordingly,  of  being 
confounded  at  that  time  with  the  other  sort,  that  were  insti- 
tuted for  the  support  of  religion,  and  so  exalted  to  hold  a  rank 
of  importance  above  them.  What  we  are  thus  taught  indi- 
rectly fiom  the  law  itself,  we  find  confirmed  by  later  testimony 
more  explicit.  In  the  apocrypha)  book  of  Tobit,  mention  i- 
made  of  two  sacred  tithes:  "The  first  tenth  part  of  all  increase," 
says  the  writer,  describing  his  own  piety,  "  I  gave  to  the  son- 
of  Aaron,  who  ministered  at  Jerusalem  :  another  tenth  part  I 
sold  away,  and  went  and  spent  it  every  year  at  Jerusalem." 
(Tobit  i.  7.)  Jewish  tradition,  however,  allows  such  a  double 
tithe  to  have  had  place  only  in  the  case  of  the  increase  of  the 
fields;  while  it  affirms  that  the  tithe  of  animals,  which  was 
single,  was  not  given  to  the  Levites  at  all  for  their  use,  but  em 
ployed  altogether  in  those  peace-offering  feasts  that  have  Ix-ei. 
mentioned.  And,  indeed,  there  is  no  intimation  in  the  law  of 
more  than  a  single  tithe  of  cattle  ;  but  it  seems  most  reason 
uble  to  suppose,  that  this,  if  it  was  the  only  one,  was  consecrated 
to  the  Invites,  and  that  these  offering-feasts  found  no  victims 
in  this  way ;  especially,  since  in  the  enumeration  of  the  offer 
ings  to  be  used  for  the  feasts,  we  meet  with  no  mention  of  such 
animal  tithes,  where  it  would  seem,  if  the  Jewish  notion  on 
this  subject  were  correct,  they  ought  not  to  have  been  left  with- 
out notice.  It  appears,  that  every  thii.l  y-ir  the  people  mi^ht. 
instead  of  carrying  their  second  tithes  to  the  sanctuary,  raakc 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  389 

«  feast  of  them  at  their  own  houses ;  unle-  s  we  suppose,  with 
vnne,  that  the  tithe  which  was  required  to  be  thus  consumed 
4t  home,  each  third  year,  was  really  a  third  one,  which  ou 
every  such  year  was  to  be  paid,  over  and  above  the  two  regu- 
lar tenths  that  have  just  been  noticed.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  2»>th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  we  have  an  account  of  a 
particular  solemnity  that  was  to  be  observed  on  these  occa- 
sions. The  beautiful  and  impressive  form  with  which  the 
second  sort  of  first-fruits  was  required  to  be  presented  before 
the  Lord,  is  described  in  the  first  part  of  the  same  chapter. — 
In  addition  to  the  regular  small  portion  of  first-fruits  which 
was  consecrated  in  this  way,  to  be  used  in  the  joyful  peace- 
offering  entertainments,  the  law  directed  that  the  whole  pro- 
duce of  all  manner  of  fruit-trees,  after  the  three  years  during 
which  it  was  considered  uncircumcised,  and  might  not  be  used 
at  all,  were  over,  should  be  in  the  fourth  year  devoted  to  reli- 
gious use,  in  like  manner.  It  was  to  be  hoty,  it  i.«  said,  "  to 
praise  the  Lord  withal."  (Lev.  xix.  23 — 25.) 

4.  VOW-OIFTS.  A  vow  is  a  solemn  voluntary  promise  tc 
God,  either  to  do  or  abstain  from  doing  something,  or  to  yifc 
>oiuething,  for  his  service  and  honour.  Such  religious  engage- 
ments were  not  rare  among  the  Jews.  Of  the  first  sort,  we 
have  an  instance  in  the  vow  of  Xazaritism,  an  account  of  which 
may  be  found  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Numbers.  Those  of  the 
second  .sort,  such  as  bound  persons  to  make  some  kind  of 
sacred  yi/t,  more  particularly  claim  our  attention  at  present. 
We  have  already  seen,  that  one  class  of  peace-ojfcrinyg,  noticed 
in  the  law,  were  such  as  men  presented  in  consequence  of  vows 
made  to  the  Lord  in  seasons  of  danger  or  distress.  But  these 
were  only  a  part  of  what  it  was  in  some  degree  customary  to 
consecrate  to  God  in  this  general  way.  A  man  might  thus 
sanctify  to  him  at  any  time,  not  only  common  property  of 
every  sort,  houses,  lands,  money,  animals  clean  or  unclean, 
&c.,  but  servants  also,  and  children,  and  even  his  own  person. 
Animals  go  consecrated,  that  were  fit  for  sacrifice,  became  vic- 
tims for  the  altar ;  those  that  could  not  be  so  used  were  sold, 
tf  not  redeemed  by  the  original  owners  themselves.  Human 
persons  became  servants  about  the  tabernacle  or  temple ;  with 
the  privilege  of  being  redeemed,  however,  when  it  was  desired 
to  embrace  it.  Other  things,  in  like  manner,  were  rendered 
in  this  way  holy  to  the  Lord,  to  be  employed  for  the  support 
of  religion,  unless  at  any  time  recovered  by  redemption  accord- 
ing to  certain  regulations.  (Lev.  xxvii.  I — 27.)  The  vow  of 
•vu  unmarried  daughter  was  not  allowed  to  have  force,  if  her 
'ither  disapproved  ot  it  when  i*  was  made ;  »o  also  that  of 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

wife,  if  in  like  manner  opposed  by  her  husband.  (Num. 
1 — 16.)  In  Matt.  xv.  3—6,  and  Mark  vii.  11,  we  ha\e  no 
ticu  of  a  wretched  abuse  that  was  sometimes  made  of  sacred 
vnws  in  later  times.  An  unprincipled  man  would  say  to  hi* 
parents,  "  Be  it  Corban,  or  a  consecrated  gift,  whatsoever  you 
shall  receive  of  me !"  and  then,  the  Pharisees  taught,  he  was 
not  only  not  required  to  give  them  any  help,  but  could  not  do 
it  without  sin  ;  because,  after  such  a  vow,  any  present  that  he 
might  ever  make  them,  although  it  was  not  holy  or  consecrated 
to  the  Lord  before,  immediately  became  so  by  the  very  act, 
and  consequently  would  bring  upon  him  the  guilt  of  xm-rilnjf 
as  well  as  jwrjury,  by  being  disposed  of  in  this  way.  Such  a 
manner  of  binding  themselves  in  relation  to  certain  things,  by 
indirectly  imprecating  guilt  of  this  sort  upon  their  heads,  if 
they  failed  to  regard  what  they  vowed,  was  not  uncommon 
among  the  Jews,  as  we  learn  from  other  sources.  Thus  one 
would  say,  for  instance,  "  Let  all  the  wine  I  ever  drink  be  con- 
Becrated  !"  or,  "  Consecrated  be  whatever  of  such  a  thing  I  ever 
taste  !"  and  thus  he  laid  himself  under  a  curse,  as  it  were,  not 
to  drink  or  taste  in  either  case,  because  the  moment  he  might 
do  so  liie  things  became  holy,  and  so  unlawful  to  be  so  u&ed. 
It  was  as  if  a  man  should  say  among  u?,  "  The.  Lord  destroy 
me,  if  I  do  this  or  that !"  So  foolish  and  wicked  was  the  im- 
precation with  which  a  man  insulted  his  father  or  mother,  in 
the  case  which  our  Saviour  notices,  in  direct  opposition  to  God's 
holy  law. 

There  was  one  sort  of  consecration,  of  an  awful  character, 
from  which  there  couM  be  no  redemption  in  any  case.  It  was 
called  by  the  Jews  Clur< m.  Knemies  were  in  some  <•• 
./.  mtril,  as  it  has  been  termed,  in  this  way ;  and  when  they 
were  so,  they  were  to  be  pursued  with  the  most  unrelenting 
destruction,  and  their  property  treated  in  most  cases  as  an  <>,•• 
cnr.w(t  thin;/,  which  it  was  not  lawful  to  make  common  use  of. 
(Num.  xxi.  1 — 3,  Josh.  vi.  17 — 19,  viii.  1.)  From  Lev. 
xxvii.  28,  29,  we  learn  th:it  a  man  might  devote  any  sort  of 
property  that  he  owned  with  a  vow  of  this  nauire,  as  well  as 
with  the  more  common  one  already  noticed.  What  is  there 
said  about  human  beings  thus  devoted,  viz.  that  they  were  to 
be  put  to  death,  is  supposed  to  refe"  altogether  to  the  case  of 
such  as  were  national  enemies,  which  has  just  been  stated  ;  or 
such  as  drew  upon  themselves  this  curse  by  such  guilt  as  is 
noticed  in  the  13th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy.  If  Jephthah, 
therefore,  in  consequence  of  his  rash  vow,  thought  himself 
hound  by  this  law  to  destroy  his  innocent  daughter,  as  it  seviui 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  841 

M  such  extremity  he  actually  did  proceed,  he  must  be  consi- 
dered to  have  misunderstood  its  meaning.  (Judg.  xi.  30 — 39.) 

5.  THK  IIALF-SHKKEL  TAX.  In  Ex.  xxx.  11 — 16,  a  statute 
is  recorded,  whi«jh  required  every  male  Israelite  over  the  ago 
of  twenty,  whether  rich  or  poor,  to  pay  at  that  time  half  a 
dhekel  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary.  It  is  not  clear,  that  it 
was  intended  this  should  ever  again  be  contributed ;  much  less 
that  such  a  tax  should  be  rendered  to  the  sanctuary  every 
year.  Such,  however,  was  the  interpretation  put  upon  the 
law  after  the  captivity.  Every  Jew,  it  was  taught,  was  bound 
to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  of  half  a  shekel  for  the  use  of  the  tem- 
ple ;  and  it  was  insisted  upon,  besides,  that  it  should  be  paid 
in  Jewish  coin.  Hence  arose  a  regular  system  of  care  for  the 
collection  of  this  sacred  revenue.  The  money-changer*,  of 
whom  we  read,  that  were  accustomed  to  sit  in  the  outer  court 
of  the  temple,  a  short  time  each  year  before  the  Passover,  were 
men  whose  business  it  was  to  receive  this  tribute,  and  to  ac- 
commodate, at  the  same  time,  with  Jewish  half-shekels,  such 
is  wanted  to  exchange  other  money  for  them.  (Matt.  xxi.  12.) 
It  seems  to  have  been  this  same  tribute  that  was  demanded  of 
our  Saviour  in  Capernaum ;  which  he  intimated  to  Peter  he 
was  not  properly  under  obligation  to  pay,  inasmuch  as  he  was 
the  Son  of  that  God  to  whom  it  was  to  be  rendered.  (Matt, 
xvii.  24—27.) 

From  the  general  survey  of  the  various  sacred  offerings  which 
has  now  been  taken,  it  appears',  that  it  was  no  small  portion 
of  their  worldly  substance  which  the  Jews  were  required  to 
consecrate  to  religious  uses.  Part  of  these  offerings,  indeed, 
were  not  altogether  removed  from  the  personal  use  of  tln><u 
that  gave  them  j  still,  they  were  employed  in  a  way  that  would 
«ot  have  been  pursued  if  religion  had  not  so  ordered,  and  in  a 
way  that  in  a  great  measure  deprived  the  offerers  of  all  their 
real  value  in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  so  that  they  had  in  them 
truly  the  nature  of  yift*  presented  to  the  Lord.  But  besides 
these,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Jew  was  called  upon  by  his  reli- 
gion to  render  year  by  year  a  large  tribute  in  the  way  of  titlu-s, 
firstlings,  &c.  that  went  altogether  to  the  support  of  the  na- 
tional worship ;  and  was  expected,  moreover,  to  consecrate  to 
God,  in  addition  to  all  this,  more  or  less  of  his  property,  in 
some  way  or  other,  of  free  and  self-moving  liberality.  Thus 
the  Lord  reminded  his  people,  that  their  earthly  possessions 
were  His ;  and  that  when  his  glory  was  to  be  promoted,  they 
should  be  ready  to  part  with  them  in  any  measure,  having  all 
assurance  that  no  employment  of  wealth  can  be  more  reason- 
tb'c  or  well-dhectcil  than  tl  at  which  is  oiade  in  ')is 


342  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

according  to  his  will,  whatever  may  be  the  waj  in  which  if  u 
appointed  to  be  used,  and  whatever  the  degree  of  liberality 
that  is  called  for. 

Many  who  now  call  themselves  the  people  of  God  would 
think  it  altogether  unreasonable,  if  they  were  called  upon  to 
contribute  such  an  amount  of  their  property  to  religious  pur- 
poses as  was  given  in  this  way  by  the  ancient  Jews.  And  yet 
it  is  certainly  not  easy  to  find  a  satisfactory  reason,  why  the 
Lord's  people,  at  the  present  time,  should  be  expected  to  be 
less  ready  and  liberal  in  service  of  this  sort  for  the  advance- 
ment of  his  glory,  than  the  Lord's  people  were  required  to  be 
in  former  times.  It  cannot  be  ssid,  that  there  is  less  room  or 
less  call  for  such  liberality  in  his  service,  since  the  passing 
away  of  that  worldly  outward  economy  under  which  the  an- 
cient church  was  placed.  For,  although  it  be  not  wanted  in 
fact  for  the  support  of  a  costly  ceremonial  worship,  it  is  still 
needed,  we  all  know,  for  the  building  up  of  Christ's  spiritual 
kingdom  in  the  earth.  This  latter  was  designed  to  be  typi- 
cally displayed  in  the  Jewish  state,  and  comprehends  in  it  tlu1 
substantial  lealities  which  the  other  but  represented  in  airy 
shadow.  How  then  can  we  suppose,  that  the  church  of  old 
was  bound  to  give  more  for  the  support  of  the  Jewish  religion 
— the  way  in  which  God  then  was  pleased,  in  infinite  wisdom, 
to  have  his  name  glorified  and  his  truth  honoured — than  the 
church  of  these  latter  days  is  bound  to  give  for  the  enlargement 
of  her  boundaries  and  the  salvation  of  the  world — the  way  in 
which  God  is  nine  to  be  glorified,  and  which  lie  has  appoint. -d 
for  the  accomplishment  of  that  great  work  of  mercy  that  he  is 
carrying  forward  in  the  earth?  The  gospel  has  not,  like  the 
.Jewish  law,  prescribed  how  much  every  individual  shall  con- 
tribute of  his  substance  to  the  treasury  of  God,  who  giveth  \.s 
all  things  richly  to  enjoy  ;  but,  while  it  urges  the  general  duty, 
leaves  every  one  to  determine  for  himself  his  own  particular 
measure.  It  seeks  a  spiritual  service,  such  us  is  prompted  \>y 
a  willing  heart,  and  not  rendered  witb  reluctance  or  by  con- 
straint:  only,  it  reminds  us,  that  "  He  which  soweth  sparingly 
shall  reap  also  sparingly,  and  he  which  soweth  bountifully 
shall  reap  also  bountifully;'  while  it  sets  before  us  a  dark, 
and  lost,  and  dying  world  which  our  efforts  may  help,  and 
thon,  with  weeping  look  and  hand  directed  towards  distant 
Calvary,  exclaims,  "Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that,  though  he  was  RICH,  yet  fur  your  sakes  he  be- 
came POOR,  that  ye  through  his  poverty  might  oe  rich  !"  (2 
LVr.  viii.  9,  ix.  0,  7,  Acts  xx.  35.) 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  843 

SECTION  II. 
SACRIFICIAL   RITES. 

CERTAIN  ceremonies  and  usages  that  wei  e  observed  in  the 
.iflering  of  sacrifices,  claim  a  more  particular  notice  than  it  wan 
proper  to  bestow  upon  them  in  the  general  view  of  sacred 
offerings  that  has  been  taken  in  the  preceding  section. 

1.  Those  who  presented  victims  at  the  altar  were  accustomed, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  Ini/  llir.ir  hands  upon  their  heads,  before 
they  were  slain.  When  offerings  were  required  to  make  atone- 
ment for  the  sins  of  the  whole  congregation,  this  ceremony 
was  performed  by  some  of  the  elders  or  rulers  as  their  repre- 
sentatives. By  this  symbolic  act,  the  animal  was  xit/i*fituffti 
in  the  place  of  the  offerer,  and  solemnly  devoted  to  God  as  a 
sacrifice  for  his  altar.  Accordingly,  it  was  the  practice  to 
accompany  it  with  some  sort  of  prayer  or  confession  suited  to 
this  idea.  In  fact,  the  ceremony  of  laying  on  hands  in  nil 
cases,  as  well  when  it  was  to  commend  its  ohjects  to  the  mercy 
of  God,  (Gen.  xlviii.  14,  Matt.  six.  15,)  or  to  set  them  apart 
to  some  particular  office,  (Num.  xxvii.  18 — 23,  Acts  xiii.  3,) 
as  when  it  was  to  devote  them  to  death,  (Lev.  xxiv.  14,)  seems 
to  have  been  as  a  matter  of  course  associated  with  the  notion 
of  some  address  to  the  Most  High;  insomuch  that  when  the 
first  was  enjoined  or  spoken  of,  the  other  was  always  under- 
stood to  belong  to  it,  even  when  it  was  not  mentioned.  In 
the  case  before  us,  when  a  sin-offering  or  trespass-offering  was 
presented,  the  offender,  with  his  hands  between  the  horns  of 
the  victim  and  his  eyes  directed  toward  the  front  of  the  Sanc- 
tuary, made  solemn  confession  of  the  particular  transgression 
for  which  it  was  brought  forward,  and  besought  (Jod,  in  his 
mercy,  to  receive  its  sacrifice  as  an  atonement  for  his  guilt,  in 
roii m  of  that  destruction  which  it  was  thus  intimated  might 
justly  fall  upon  his  own  head.  When  a  burnt -i offering  was 
presented,  a  more  general  confession  of  sinful  short-comiug  in 
the  obedience  that  God's  law  demanded,  seems  to  have  been 
common.  It  is  probable  also,  though  we  are  not  so  told  ex- 
plicitly, that  the  address  to  God  had  in  it,  on  certain  occasions, 
a  supplication  more  especially  for  some  other  blessing  than  the 
forgiveness  of  sin,  or  a  thankful  acknowledgment  for  somo 
goodness  already  experienced,  according  to  the  particular 
nature  and  design  of  the  sacrifice  that  was  offered.  Especially 
may  we  supjwtse  this  would  be  the  manner  in  the  case  of  peace- 
offerings,  which  were  often  presented  with  a  parti-.'ulai  refer 


344  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ence  to  some  single  end  of  this  sort.     At  the  same  time,  how 
ever,  even  in  such  cases  there  might  have  been  mention  niaae 
of  sin,  with  a  petition  for  pardoning  mercy,  in  view  of  the  life 
that  was  going  to  be  poured  out  in  sacrifice  to  the  Holy  One 
According  to  Jewish  tradition,  confession  was  made  over  vie 
tims  offered  to  make  expiation  for  sin  by  individual  offenders, 
in  some  such  form  as  this:  "0  Lord,  1  have  sinned!   I  have 
traasyressed!  I  have  rrbetted!    This  have  I  done: — (and  then 
he  named  the  particular  offence  for  which  he  sought  forgive- 
ness.)    But  now  I  repent,  and  may  this  victim  be  my  expia- 
tion!" 

2.  Victims  were  slain  immediately  after  the  ceremony  just 
noticed.     Those  that  were  presented  for  the  whole  congrega- 
tion were  required  from  the  first  to  be  killed  by  the  priests  or 
Levites.     In  other  cases,  it  was  originally  the  custom  for  the 
offerers  themselves  to  perform  the  work ;  but  afterwards,  the 
Levites,  being  more  expert  at  such  business  than  others,  had 
it  yielded  altogether  into  their  hands.     The  animals,  we  are 
told  by  the  Jews,  were  fastened  by  the  neck  or  feet  to  certain 
strong  rings,  fixed  firmly  to  the  pavement  of  the  temple-co'irt, 
beside   the  altar,   for   convenient  slaughter.     Life   was   thou 
taken  by  cutting  the  throat  with  a  single  stroke  of  the  knife, 
BO  deep  that  all  the  blood  might  flow  out  of  the  body.     This, 
as  it  streamed  from  the  dying  victim,  was  carefully  received 
into  a  sacred  vessel  kept  for  the  purpose,  to  be  made  use  of  ac- 
cording to  law. 

3.  The  blood,  as  we  have  seen,  was  differently  disposed  of 
in  sacrifices  of  different  kinds.     In  a  few  peculiarly   solemn 
cases,  some  of  it  was  carried  within  the  Sanctuary,  and  sprinkl ••(! 
toward  the  mercy-seat,  and  placed  upon  the  horns  of  the  golden 
altar.     In  other  instances,  it  was  all  employed  about  the  altar 
of  burnt-offering.     From  the  bottom  of  this  altar,  in  the  tem- 
ple, there  was  a  subterraneous  passage,  it  is  said,  by  which  it 
was  carried  away  into  the  brook  of  Cedron. — The  sprinkling 
and  pouring  out  of  the  blood  formed  a  most  material  and  es- 
sential part  of  the  sacrificial  service.     Because,  as  we  are  told, 
it  was  the  blood,  which  is  represented  to  be  in  an  especial  muri 
oer  tne  seat  of  life,  that  made  atonement  for  the  soul ;  and 
this  application  of  the  blood  to  the  altar,  in  any  particular  case, 
was  that  especially  which  had  in  it  the  virtue  of  expiation  in- 
cluded in  the  sacrifice. 

On  account  of  its  use  in  this  respect,  blood  was  made  most 
solemnly  sacred.  Not  only  in  the  case  of  sacrifices,  but  in 
every  other  case  also,  it  was  prohibited  with  the  greatest  care 
from  being  tasted  as  food  or  regarded  as  a  common  thing;  so 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  346 

that  the  most  dreadful  punishment  was  denounced  against  the 
man  who  should  dare  to  transgress  the  Divine  commandment 
respecting  it.  Nor  was  it  merely  with  the  establishment  of 
t.he  Jewish  economy  that  this  prohibition  had  place.  It  waa 
spoken  to  Noah,  the  second  father  of  the  whole  human  race, 
immediately  after  the  flood,  when  permission  to  use  animal 
food  at  all  was  first  granted;  so  that  from  the  beginning  of 
time  man  had  not  been  allowed  to  eat  blood.  Nor  does  it  ap- 
pear to  have  been  merely  for  a  ceremonial  reason  that  the 
statute  was  thus  early  clothed  with  obligation.  '  The  only  rea- 
son assigned  at  first  was  that  the  life  was  in  the  blood.  (Gen. 
ix.  4.)  Hence  many  have,  not  without  cause,  adopted  the 
conclusion,  that  the  original  prohibition  was  intended  to  have 
force  among  all  men  till  the  end  of  time,  as  a  memorial  that 
life,  even  in  its  humblest  character,  is  sacred,  and  that  man 
has  no  right  to  destroy  it  in  any  case  except  as  God,  the  author 
of  it,  has  been  pleased  to  give  him  explicit  permission.  This 
idea  is  supposed  to  receive  great  confirmation  from  the  cele- 
brated decree  of  that  Christian  council,  held  in  the  earliest  age 
of  the  gospel  at  Jerusalem,  of  which  we  have  an  account  in 
the  15th  chapter  of  Acts.  Others,  however,  reject  this  notion, 
and  consider  the  prohibition  of  blood  to  have  had  respect  from 
the  beginning  only  to  the  ceremonial  use  to  which  it  was,  on 
account  of  its  vital  nature,  consecrated  in  the  institution  of 
sacrifices,  and  which  accordingly  was  brought  to  an  end,  with 
other  shadows  of  the  ancient  economy,  in  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Whether  it  is  lawful  for  a  Christian  or  any  person  at 
the  present  time  to  eat  blood,  is  therefore  a  disputed  question. 
In  such  a  case,  then,  it  is  at  any  rate  wise  not  to  taste  it.  It 
mny  be  that  the  use  of  it  is  not  unlawful,  but  it  is  certainly 
safer  on  the  whole  to  act  as  if  it  were  clearly  ascertained  to  be 
otherwise  ;  especially,  since  the  article  is  in  itself  so  pernicious 
to  health,  and  so  uninviting  naturally  to  a  sound  taste,  that  it 
is  truly  marvellous  how,  through  a  process  of  strange  and  arti- 
ficial preparation,  it  should,  in  some  parts  of  our  country,  have 
found  toleration,  and  even  right  friendly  reception  in  civilizc-l 
entertainments. 

4.  The  blood  being  disposed  of,  the  animal  was  rapidly 
Btripped  of  its  skin,  and  cut  in  pieces,  and  as  far  ;is  it  was  to 
be  consumed  upon  the  altar,  made  ready  f«»r  the  tire.  In  the 
second  temple,  there  were  tables  of  marble,  and  pillars  with 
lio-'ks  fixed  in  them  for  hanging  victims  upon,  which  afforded 
i  o-ry  convenience  for  this  business.  The  ski;  tl  giveu 

to  in.-  priests.     The  animal  was  cut  iu>,  ii"'  -  -!y,  but 

ueatly,  and  according  to  rule.     Certniu  parts  were  required  V 


346  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

be  carefully  washed,  that  no  sort  of  filth  might  be  allowed  to 
come  upon  the  altar. 

5.  We  read  of  particular  parts  of  slain  victims,  a*  well  as  of 
whole  offerings,  at  other  times,  both  such  as  were  bloody  and 
such  as  were  not,  being  presented  to  God  with  certain  peculiar 
ceremonies,  denominated  henviny  and  tearing.     It  is  not  cleai 
what,  precisely,  these  ceremonies  were,  or  whether  there  was 
really  any  material  difference  between  them.     Some  suppose, 
that  the  one  was  a  I  If  tiny   up  of  the  offering,  and  the  other 
merely  a  letting  down  of  it  again  ;  so  that  every  heave-stffi:riny 
necessarily  became  a  ware-ojferi)i<j.     The  Jews  tell  us,  that  to 
hi'dce  an  offering  was  to  lift  it  upwards,  and   that  to   irate  it 
was  to  pass  it  this  way  and  that  way  toward  the  four  quarters 
of  the  world  ;  all  which  solemn  —remony  was  designed  to  sig- 
nify that  it  was  thus  presented  to  Him  who  fills  the  universe 
with  his  presence—  the  Maker  and   Possessor  of  heaven  and 
earth  with  all  their  fulness.     In  a  few  instances,  animals  were 
subjected  to  this  rite  before  they  were  killed.  (Lev.  xiv.  24, 
xxiii.  20.)     More  commonly,  it  was  performed  with  some  par- 
ticiuar  parts,  after   they  were  cut  up;  especially,  with  the 
breast  and  right  shoulder,  in  all  cases  of  peace-offering  sacri- 
fices, which  were  appropriated  for  the  use  of  the  priests  by  a 
continual  statute.     Bloodless  offerings,  also,  were  at  times  pre- 
sented with  the  fume  ceremony.  (Ex.  xxix.  22 — 28.) 

6.  All  fat,  in  sacrifices  of  every  sort,  that  could  be  conve- 
niently separated  from  the  flesh  of  victims,  was  required  to  be 
burned  upon  the  altar.     Thus,  we  find  direction  still  given, 
however  other  parts  of  the  victim  might  be  disposed  of,  that 
those  portions  which  were  either  altogether  or  principally  com- 
posed of  this  aubstance,  should  be  made  an  offering  by  fire  unto 
ihe  Lord.     These  being  the  richest  portions,  it  was  thus  inti- 
mated, as  it  was  in  other  requirements  already  noticed,  that 
God  ought  to  receive,  in  all  our  worship,  the  best  sen-ice  which 
it  is  in  our  power  to  render.     Hence,  fat  became,  in  something 
of  the  same  manner  as  blood,  a  sacred  substance ;  so  that  it 
was  declared  unlawful  to  eat  those  parts  that  have  been  re- 
ferred to,  in  the  case  of  any  animal  of  the  different  classes  from 
which  the  altar  derived  its  victims,  even  when  it  was  killed  at 
home  for  common  use.  (Lev.  vii.  23 — 25.) 

Destitute  as  it  was,  besides,  of  all  the  advantages  of  butter 
or  pork  in  any  shape,  this  prohibition  of  all  manner  of  fat, 
whether  of  the  flock  or  of  the  herd,  would  have  left  the  Jew- 
ish cookery  in  a  sad  predicament,  had  it  not  all  been  more 
than  compensated  for  by  the  excellent  oil  of  olives  which  the 
rountry  yielded  in  such  rich  abundance  In  these  latter  days, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  347 

.uany  of  the  scattered  family  of  Abraham,  who  dwell  in  other 
aountries,  where  the  olive  of  their  ancient  land  is  not  known, 
have  found  themselves  subjected  to  no  inconsiderable  incon 
venience  on  this  score.  Butter,  they  maintain,  was  not  only 
not  in  use  among  their  ancestors  for  the  preparation  of  food,  aa 
it  was  in  Egypt  and  other  countries,  but  actually  forbidden,  aa 
much  as  hog's  lard  and  the  other  fat  that  has  been  mentioned, 
l>y  the  Divine  law.  In  this  extremity,  they  have  been  com- 
pelled to  put  up  altogether  with  such  fat  as  can  be  procured 
from  animals  that  were  not  reckoned  in  this  prohibition,  and 
are  yet  of  that  number  that  were  considered  clean ;  among 
which  they  number  the  goose,  though  its  claim  to  the  lattei 
distinction  is  not  entirely  out  of  the  reach  of  dispute,  and  have 
made  it,  accordingly,  their  most  substantial  resource  for  this 
purpose,  using  its  fat  in  the  room  of  butter,  for  want  of  the  fa- 
ourite  oil  of  their  fathers.  The  law  that  has  been  supposed 
,o  forbid  the  use  of  butter,  it  may  he  remarked  here,  by  the 
way,  is  the  following  :  Ttum  nhalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  it*  mo- 
tficrx  milk.  Nor  is  this  interpretation  without  strong  reason 
in  its  favour,  however  unnatural  it  may  seem  at  first  glance. 
It  is  not  without  countenance  from  the  usage  of  eastern  lan- 
guage, that  the  phrase,  a  kid's  mother,  is  understood  to  mean, 
universally,  a  goat  that  gives  milk,  without  reference  to  any 
(.articular  case ;  or,  that  what  is  spoken  particularly  of  one 
dass  of  animals,  is  considered  to  include  a  general  precept, 
Living  force  in  regard  to  OTHERS  also,  that  gave  similar  room 
fur  its  application.  Thus,  the  milk  of  a  kid's  motlier  is  inter- 
preted to  mean  any  sort  of  milk,  and  of  course  any  thing  pro- 
duced from  milk,  as  all  butter  is;  while  the  flesh  of  a  kid 
means  any  sort  of  flesh  :  so  that,  altogether,  out  of  the  senten- 
tious statute,  Thou  shall  not  seethe  a  kid  in  its  mother's  milk, 
is  derived  this  very  practical  signification,  Thou  shall  not  dress 
meat  with  butter.  However  this  interpretation  may  be  re- 
ceived, it  is  clear,  that  the  law  gave  no  encouragement  to 
the  use  of  butter ;  but,  by  prescribing  oil  in  all  meat-offeringa 
which  were  used  in  sacred  entertainments,  indirectly  discounte- 
nanced it. 

7.  With  all  thine  offerings,  it  was  commanded  in  the  law, 
thmi  shall  offer  salt.  (Lev.  ii.  13.)  This  statute,  the  Jews 
tell  us,  was  so  strictly  regarded,  that  nothing  came  unsaited 
to  the  altar,  but  the  wine  of  the  drink-offering,  the  blood 
sprinkled,  and  the  wood  that  was  used  for  the  fire.  Salt  for 
this  purpose  used  to  be  kept  always  at  the  temple,  provided  at 
the  public  charge,  so  that  it  was  not  expected  to  be  furnished 
by  thor«e  who  presented  the  offerings.  It  was  customary,  w 


848  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

are  to.d,  to  salt  the  parts  of  victims  that  were  to  be  burned, 
generally  on  the  rise  that  went  up  to  the  altar,  but,  in  some 
cases,  on  the  top  of  it.  To  the  usage  of  salting  sacrifices,  our 
Saviour  refers  in  Mark  ix.  49.  Especially  was  it  enjoined 
that  this  article  should  be  found  with  every  neat-offering.  As 
it  was  the  symbol  of  friendship,  it  was  altogether  fit  that  it 
should  not  be  wanting  in  the  sacred  entertainments,  where  men 
were  admitted,  as  it  were,  to  participate  with  God  on  the  most 
intimate  terms.  Because  of  its  significance  in  this  respect,  it 
was  denominated  the  mlt  of  Ow  cot-uimif. 

8.  The  wood  was  always  placed  iu  order,  and  set  on  fare  first. 
Care  having  been  taken  to  have  it  thus  in  readiness,  the  seve- 
ral parts  of  the  sacrifice  that  were  to  be  consumed,  after  the 
preparatory  steps  that  have  been  noticed,  were  placed  upon  the 
burning  pile.     In  the  case  of  holocausts,  or  burnt-offerings,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  u-lwl'  victim,  except  the  skin,  was  thus  de- 
stroyed ;  in  other  cases,  only  certain  portions  of  it. 

9.  The  altar  having  received  its  share  in  those  cases  where 
the  whole  was  not  given  to  it,  there  were  three  different  ways 
in  which  the  remainder  of  the  flesh,  according  to  the  nature  of 
the  sacrifice,  was  required  to  be  disposed  of.     1st.  It  was  in 
some  instances  to  be  carried  out  of  the  camp,  or  out  of  Jeru- 
salem, which,  in  the  times  of  the  temple,  answered  to  the  an- 
cient camp  in  the  wilderness,  and  burned  as  a  polluted  thing. 
The  bodies  of  those  beasts,  whose  blood  was  carried  into  the 
Sanctuary,  were  all  borne  forth,  and  destroyed  in   this  way. 
2d.  It  was,  in  certain  cases,  to  be  eaten  by  the  priests.     Thus, 
all  was  appointed  to  be  usecl  in  the  case  of  common  sin-offer- 
ings, or  trespass-offerings,  in  which  the  blood  was  not  taken 
into  the  Sanctuary,  and  also  in  the  cast-  of  the  two  lambs  of- 
fered on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  as  peace-offerings  for  the  whole 
congregation ;    and    particular  portions,   viz.   the   breast  and 
the  right  shoulder,  in  the  case  of  all  peace-offerings  presented 
by  individuals.     In  the  cases  first  stated,  it  was  considered 
especially  lwly,  and  might  not  be  eaten  anywhere  out  of  the 
court  of  the  Sanctuary,  and  only  by  such  of  the  priestly  family 
vis  were  males.  (Num.   xviii.  9,  10.)     But  the  flesh  allotted 
to  the  priests  from  common  peace-offerings,  like  that  which  fell 
to  them  in  the  way  of  firstling  dues,  might  be  eaten,  it  seems, 
anywhere  in  Jerusalem,  and  by  all  that  properly  belonged  te 
their  household,  if  only  they  were  free,  at  the  time,  from  cere- 
monial uncleauness — a  thing  that  was  required  in  every  per- 
Bon  that  tasted,  in  any  case,  food  that  was  made  sacred  by 
being  presented  at  the  altar.   (Lev.  xxii.  2 — 16,  vii.  20,  21.) 
Bd.  Whatever  of  the  flesh  of  the  sacrificeg  was  not  disposed  of 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  349 

ii.  the  ways  that  Lave  been  already  mentioned,  wa*  appropn 
alcd  to  the  use  of  the  offerers  themselves,  and  might  be  eaten 
in  the  sacred  entertainments,  in  which  it  was  expected  to  be 
all  employed  within  less  than  two  days,  by  all  classes  of  per- 
sons that  were  clean,  and  in  any  part  of  Jerusalem.  Thus,  ull 
the  flesh  not  claimed  by  the  altar,  except  the  breast  and  right 
shoulder,  which  fell  to  the  priests,  was  made  use  of  in  the  case 
of  every  common  peace-offering.  In  these  offering-feasts,  as 
already  intimated,  a  sort  of  sacred  communion  was  instituted 
between  God  and  his  worshippers.  The  entertainment  was 
furnished  by  him  from  the  provisions  of  his  House ;  and  as 
with  men,  social  feasts  are  always  indicative  of  friendly  feeling 
among  those  who  unite  in  them,  and  in  ancient  times,  espe- 
cially, were  used  as  signs  and  pledges  of  mutual  good-will  and 
confidence  between  such  as  entered  with  each  other  into  cove- 
nants of  peace,  (Gen.  xxvi.  28 — 30,  xxxi.  44 — 46,  Josh.  ix. 
14,  15,)  so  those  who  were  thus  permitted  to  partake,  as  it 
were,  of  the  Lord's  table,  in  receiving  entertainment  from  the 
altar,  were  supposed  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of  his  friendship 
and  peculiar  favour,  and  to  be,  by  this  sign,  in  holy  covenant 
with  him,  if  not  guilty  of  cold  and  false  hypocrisy  in  their  own 
hearts.  (Mai.  i.  7,  12.)  The  apostle  argues  with  the  Corin- 
thians against  the  use  of  meat  that  had  been  consecrated  i& 
sacrifice  to  idols,  from  this  well-known  principle ;  showing, 
that,  as  under  the  Jewish  law  they  who  ate  of  the  sacrifices 
were  partakers  of  God's  altar,  so  those  who  joined  in  the  offer- 
ing-feasts of  the  heathen  around  them  might  properly  be  said 
to  have  fellowship,  in  so  doing,  with  devils.  (1  Cor.  x.  18,  20.) 


SECTION  III. 
MEANING   AND    ORIGIN   OF   SACRIFICES. 

IT  must  be  felt  by  every  person  who  seriously  thinks  upoi 
ihe  subject,  that  the  use  of  sacrifices,  which  entered  so  exten- 
sively into  the  whole  system  of  religious  worship  in  ancient 
times,  had  in  it  something  strange  and  difficult  to  be  under- 
stood on  the  principles  of  mere  natural  reason.  Offerings  of 
the  bloodless  sort,  indeed,  might  be  imagined,  without  much 
objection,  to  have  taken  their  origin  from  the  suggestion  of 
nature  itself,  and  to  have  been  reasonable  expressions  of  thank- 
ful piety,  to  which  men  would  be  led  under  its  influence  in  the 
must  direct  and  easy  manner.  Thus  it  might  be  e<>n>i<lcivcl 
not  altogether  wonderful  or  unnatural  that  they  shuuld  have 

•o    . 


350  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

been  moved  solemnly  to  present  to  God,  at  times,  some  portiou 
of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  secured  by  their  labour,  as  Cain  did, 
by  way  of  acknowledging  him  to  be  the  Author  and  Giver  o'' 
all  blessings,  or  to  testify  gratirude  for  special  favours  received 
from  his  hand.  But,  in  the  case  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  pious 
patriarchs  noticed  in  the  Bible,  offerings  of  this  sort  made  but 
a  small  and  secondary  part  of  the  general  system  of  sacrifices 
All  the  more  striking  and  distinguished  features  of  that  sy» 
tern  were  portrayed  with  blood.  The  slaying  and  consuming 
of  animal  victims  entered  essentially  and  primarily  into  it* 
whole  constitution,  and  formed  both  the  basis  and  the  princi 
pal  body  of  all  its  peculiar  structure.  Here  it  is,  that  we  arc 
met  with  mystery  in  the  institution,  such  as  mere  nature  can- 
not help  us  to  comprehend.  What  should  lead  men  to  suppose 
that  God  would  be  pleased  with  the  slaughter  of  unoffending 
animals  in  his  worship  ?  What  connection  was  there  between 
this  apparently  cruel  destruction  of  life  and  the  Divine  favour  ? 
or  how  could  it  express  a  pious  temper  in  the  person  who  thus 
sought  to  honour  his  Maker,  or  conciliate  his  friendship  ? 
And  still  more,  how  is  it  to  be  accounted  for,  that  God  did,  in 
fact,  approve  of  this  bloody  service,  and  make  it  an  essentia) 
part  of  the  only  true  religion,  for  so  long  a  period  of  ages  ? 
Are  we  to  imagine,  that  the  Holy  One  could  find  satisfaction 
in  the  sufferings  of  his  harmless  creatures?  Could  he  1x3 
pleased,  in  itself,  with  the  blood  of  bullocks  or  of  goats,  or  be 
soothed  into  complacency  by  the  savour  of  their  burning  flesh  ? 

To  these  last  inquiries,  all  reason  and  natural  sense  answer, 
No.  Nor  can  it  be,  with  any  propriety,  imagined  that  iiu-ii 
should  ever,  of  their  own  accord,  have  taken  up  the  notion, 
that  such  service  could,  in  itself,  seem  agreeable  to  the  Crea- 
tor of  heaven  and  earth.  How,  then,  the  question  remains, 
did  the  notion  of  bloody  sacrifices  come  into  existence  ?  and 
where  shall  we  find  a  satisfactory  reason  for  the  fact,  that  such 
a  strange  and  unnatural  worship  wa»  really  acceptable  to  the 
Most  High  ?  The  Bible  explains  all  ^uis  mystery.  It  teacho 
us  the  true  meaning  of  this  service,  and  so  guides  us  to  the 
discovery  of  its  sacred  oriyin.  Let  us  attend  to  the  instruc- 
tion it  imparts  on  these  interesting  points. 

1.  THE  MEANING  OF  SACRIFICES.  The  Scriptures  inform 
oa,  that  the  shedding  of  blood,  in  this  ancient  institution,  had 
regard  altogether  to  sin.  Such  a  service  was  suited  only  to  thf 
worship  of  a  guilty  race,  and  never,  in  any  case,  left  this  con 
gidcration  out  of  sight.  Had  men  never  fallen,  it  could  nevei 
have  had  any  meaning  in  their  religious  worship;  and  would 
uev?r,  accordingly,  have  found  place  in  it.  But  the  fall  al 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  35i 

tored  all  their  relation  to  God.  It  was  no  longer  possible  fof 
the  rre&ture  to  come  directly  before  the  Creator,  as  when  inno- 
cent aud  pure,  with  acceptable  homage  or  supplication.  Guilt 
hung  a  dark  and  impenetrable  curtain  between  the  soul  and 
the  favour  of  its  God,  and  shut  out  the  voice,  alike  of  prayer 
aud  praise,  in  deep  and  hopeless  despair.  No  worship  of  man 
could  be  accepted,  until  this  awful  hinderance  was  taken  out 
of  the  way.  God,  however,  in  his  mercy,  devised  a  plan  for 
Its  removal.  The  plan  was  to  secure  complete  satisfaction  to 
liis  holy  law,  by  suffering  its  vengeance  to  fall  somewhere  else, 
(where  it  could  be  rightly  received,)  than  upon  the  rebellious 
themselves — by  vicarious  sacrifice — by  an  adequate  atonement, 
rendered  through  the  shedding  of  blood,  without  which  there 
;!ould  be  no  remission.  Here,  then,  we  have  unfolded  the 
general  meaning  of  bloody  sacrifices,  and  the  general  reason 
why  the  Most  High  regarded  them  with  approbation,  and  re- 
quired them  from  his  worshippers.  The  whole  system  had 
reference  to  the  guilt  of  sin,  and  its  necessary  expiation. 
Blood,  the  symbol  of  animal  life,  was  consecrated,  by  a  Divine 
appropriation,  to  this  single  holy  use,  and,  in  all  its  flowing  at 
the  altar,  was  expressive  of  atonement  for  ttie  soul. 

But  could  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  take  away  sin  ?  Had 
it,  in  itself,  the  smallest  efficacy  to  make  atonement  for  guilt, 
and  satisfy  the  holy  law  of  God  ?  The  apostle  assures  us,  that 
Buch  a  thing  was  not  possible,  (Heb.  x.  1 — 4  ;)  and,  if  he  had 
not  told  us  so,  the  smallest  reflection  might  convince  us,  that 
such  sacrifices,  however  multiplied,  could  never  purge  away 
the  conscience  of  sin,  and  restore  tranquillity  or  holy  confidence 
to  the  guilty  soul.  We  must  not,  for  a  moment,  imagine, 
therefore,  that  an  offering  of  this  sort,  in  any  case,  did  ever, 
of  itself,  make  the  smallest  satisfaction  for  the  offence  of  any 
Bin,  in  the  sight  of  the  Most  Holy.  When  we  read  of  atone- 
ment being  made  in  this  way  for  particular  sins,  under  the  old 
dispensation,  we  are  to  understand,  that  while  it  actually 
availed,  in  consequence  of  the  Divine  appointment,  to  satisfy 
the  requirement  of  the  ceremonial,  and  in  certain  cases  of  the 
civil  law,  it  answered  the  claim  of  the  moral  law  only  in 
tkadowj  having  nothing  whatever,  in  itself,  suited  to  its  na- 
ture, but  merely  setting  forth,  in  typical  representation,  a  far 
more  excellent  sacrifice  to  come.  The  Ceremonial  system  wa*» 
altogether,  as  we  have  seen,  a  shadowy  exhibition  of  the  Great 
Gospel  ll-'.-ilitv  ;  without  substance,  or  value,  or  meaning, 
when  looked  upon  wholly  in  itself,  but  full  of  expressive  and 
in>tructive  power  when  contemplated  in  its  relation  to  this 
Mystery  of  G  race.  It  had,  accordingly,  if  we  may  be  allowed 


352  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

the  expression,  a  class  of  shadowy  sins,  among  other  things, 
for  the  more  perfect  illustration  of  its  shadowy  atonement 
The  ceremonial  law  imposed  an  obligation  of  its  own,  distinct 
from  that  of  the  moral  law,  and  might  be  violated,  so  as  to 
bring  its  condemnation  upon  a  man,  while  no  true  guilt,  such 
as  arises  only  from  an  offence  against  the  latter,  was  contracted. 
This  ceremonial  guilt,  as  it  may  be  termed,  might  be  entirely 
taken  away,  by  the  ceremonial  means  appointed  for  the  pur 
pose.  The  guilt  and  the  removal  of  it  were  alike  symbol! 
cal ;  although,  at  the  same  time,  not  to  make  use  of  the  means 
for  this  removal  could  not  fail  to  bring  upon  the  soul  the  stain 
of  real  guilt,  inasmuch  as  it  then  became  disobedience  to  God, 
and  so  a  transgression  of  the  moral  law.  So,  in  particului 
ruM'.s,  the  requirement  of  the  civil  law,  viewed  entirely  apart 
from  moral  duty,  was  completely  satisfied  by  the  same  sort  of 
means.  Thus,  a  representation  was  given  of  the  true  atone- 
ment, by  which  alone  true  sins  were  to  be  taken  away.  In 
some  oth«.r  cases,  however,  there  was  no  claim  of  any  law 
answered  by  these  sacrificial  offerings.  They  were  presented 
altogether  on  account  of  moral  transgressions,  without  regard 
to  any  of  a  merely  ceremonial  or  civil  sort :  and  then,  of  course, 
they  accomplished  nothing  at  all  in  themselves :  only,  they 
pointed  to  an  all-sufficient  sacrifice  that  was  to  be  revealed ; 
and  when  offered  by  the  truly  pious,  were  acceptable  to  God, 
as  containing  in  them  an  acknowledgment  of  guilt,  and  a  re- 
nunciation of  every  other  ground  of  hope  for  pardon  and  right- 
eousness, but  the  great  provision  which  he  himself  had  pro- 
mised to  make  known  in  the  latter  days,  for  the  purpose. 

Such  was  the  only  value  of  the  ancient  sacrifices.  They 
never  purged  the  worshippers  of  God  from  the  conscience  of 
sins,  and  were  therefore  continually  offered  up,  year  after  year, 
making  continually  new  remembrance  of  guilt.  To  rely  upon 
them,  therefore,  as  taking  away  the  guilt  of  sin,  even  when 
true  repentance  accompanied  them,  was  to  lean  upon  a  broken 
reed ;  and  still  more  presumptuous  was  it  to  do  so,  when  no 
such  repentance  was  felt  at  all.  Yet  to  this  degree  of  pre- 
sumption were  the  Jews  ever  prone  to  be  carried.  They  were 
apt  to  fall  into  the  notion,  that  these  sacrifices  were  in  them- 
telvcs,  without  regard  to  something  else,  highly  acceptable  to 
God,  and  that  he  could  not  refuse  to  be  pleased  with  them, 
even  when  presented  by  the  wicked.  Hence  we  hoar  the  Lord 
expostulating  with  them  :  "  To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude 
)f  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  I  am  full  of  the  burnt-offerings 
af  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts ;  and  I  delight  not  in  the 
olood  of  bullreks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of  he-goats,"  &c.  (Isa.  i.  11— 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  353 

«4.  Ps.  1.  7 — 14.)  And  all  along  it  was  taught,  that  to  obey 
*as  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  to  the  Lord's  voice 
r-ettcr  than  the  fat  of  rams.  (1  Sam.  xv.  22,  Hosea  vi.  6.) 
Without  such  a  disposition,  it  was  not  possible  that  the  Lord 
could  accept  the  service  of  any  worshipper,  though  he  appeared 
in  his  presence  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  ten  thousands  of 
rivers  of  oil ;  nor  yet,  at  the  same  time,  even  with  this  dispo- 
aition,  could  such  expensive  offerings,  or  the  still  more  precious 
offering  of  a  first-born  son  itself,  have  the  smallest  efficacy  in 
their  nature,  to  remove  the  guilt  of  transgression.  (Micah  vi. 
6 — 8.)  Just  as  now,  to  belong  to  the  church  and  partake  of 
the  Lord's  supper  are  things  that  can  be  of  no  avail  without 
a  heart  ready  to  obey  the  will  of  God,  and,  even  where  there 
is  such  a  readiness,  cannot  in  themselves  and  on  their  own  ac- 
count procure  saving  benefit  to  the  soul,  but  merely  help  to 
direct  it  to  the  Great  Original  Resource  of  Grace,  and  serve  as 
channels  through  which  its  streams  may  be  received. 

What  the  ancient  sacrifices  only  represented  in  empty 
shadow,  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  Sacrffic-e  of  Himself,  actually  ac- 
complished. This  we  are  expressly  taught  in  the  epistle  to 
the  Hebrews.  As  the  whole  priestly  office  had  respect  to  the 
mediatorial  character  of  our  Saviour,  and  never  had  any  other 
than  a  shadowy,  unsubstantial  character,  except  in  him,  as  has 
been  before  remarked;  so  also  the  entire  scheme  of  sacrificial 
worship  had  reference  to  his  atoning  death,  which  was  in  fact 
the  only  true  and  efficacious  sacrifice  ever  made ;  while  all  be- 
fore it  were  mere  pictures  of  its  precious  reality.  Thus  he 
was  himself,  at  the  same  time,  priest  and  victim.  The  typical 
priests  be-fore  him  stood  "  daily  ministering,  and  offering  often- 
times the  same  sacrifices,  which  could  never  take  away  sins ; 
but  this  man,  after  he  had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  for 
ever  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  God."  (Heb.  vii.  27,  x. 
11,  12.)  In  this  sacrifice  there  was  value  enough  to  make 
full  expiation  for  all  the  sins  of  the  whol')  world ;  and  to  as 
many  as  embrace  its  advantage,  by  faith,  it  will  be  found,  till 
the  end  of  time,  completely  availing  to  remove  the  heaviest 
pressure  of  guilt,  and  to  deliver  them  from  its  deepest  condem- 
nation, into  a  state  of  peace  and  reconciliation  with  a  Holy 
God.  Because  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  was  thus  truly  an 
atoning  sacrifice,  he  is  called  the  "  Lamb  of  God  which  tak-.-tii 
away  the  sin  of  the  world."  (John  i.  29.)  And  in  vision  he 
appeared  to  the  beloved  disciple,  as  "  a  Lamb  that  had  been 
^lain,''  (Rev.  v.  6:)  his  blood  also,  which  we  are  told  "clean- 
seth  from  all  sin,"  is  represented  to  be  like  that  of  "a  lamb 
without  blemish  and  without  spot."  (1  Pet.  i.  19,  I  John  i.  7.* 


35*  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

We  find  his  death,  accordingly,  all  along  spoken  of  as  bein£ 
on  account  of  sin,  and  to  make  satisfaction  for  its  guilt — 
sin  that  was  not  his  own,  but  which  he  consented  to  bear  in 
the  room  of  his  people,  and  to  take  away  on  their  behalf,  bj 
becoming  a  sln-niffi'rlng  for  them,  and  pouring  out  his  soul  lie- 
neath  the  awful  pressure  of  infinite  justice.  Besides  the  f>'5tl 
chapter  of  Isaiah,  the  following  passages  may  be  consulted  on 
this  point:  viz.  Matt.  xx.  28,  xxvi.  28,  Rom.  iii.  '2~>,  -*>, 
viii.  3,  2  Cor.  v.  21,  Eph.  v.  2,  1  Pet.  ii.  24,  iii.  18. 

The  death  of  atonement,  then,  which  the  Son  of  God  died 
for  our  redemption,  was  that  to  which  all  sacrifices,  from  the 
earliest  times,  had  respect  as  their  great  termination,  and  with- 
out which  they  would  have  been  as  destitute  of  reason  as  they 
were,  in  their  very  nature,  of  all  actual  value  in  the  sight  of 
Heaven.  If  holy  men  of  old  made  an  acceptable  use  of  tlicm, 
in  drawing  near  to  God,  it  was  only  by  looking  throm/h  them 
them  to  this  all-perfect  and  sufficient  sacrifice  which  they  pre- 
figured. This  great  sacrifice,  accordingly,  being  offered  up  in 
due  time,  all  that  were  before  it  were  completely  done  away, 
and  all  that  ancient  sort  of  worship  went  for  ever  out  of  use. 

2.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SACRIFICES.  Having  thus  discovered  the 
true  meaning  of  sacrifices,  we  cannot  hesitate  in  deciding  the 
question,  whether  they  were  of  Divine,  or  of  merely  human 
origin.  It  is  in  fact  decided  already.  For  if  the  sacrifice  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  the  only  one  that  ever  had  any  proper  and 
substantial  reality,  and  all  others  were  entirely  unmeaning, 
except  as  faint  images  and  pictures  of  this,  it  is  manifest  that 
the  whole  system  must  have  been  derived  altogether  from  the 
appointment  of  God.  As  the  original  idea  of  atonement  by 
blood,  which  in  the  fulness  of  time  became  rcaliz'-d  in  the 
death  of  the  Son  of  God,  was  conceived  from  the  beginning  in 
the  Divine  mind  alone,  so  we  are  to  trace  back  to  the  same 
source  the  entire  plan  of  that  preparatory  representation  by 
which  it  was  held  up  for  the  encouragement  and  assistance  of 
faith,  in  unsubstantial  type,  so  many  ages  before  its  actual 
development.  The  great  Pattern  Sacrifice  being  altogether  of 
heavenly  device,  and  in  its  glorious  nature  a  mystery,  com- 
pletely hidden  from  human  knowledge  till  revealed  in  its  own 
season,  it  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  other  sacrifices  be- 
fore it,  which  answered  so  strikingly  as  shadows  to  its  wonder- 
ful reality,  and  viewed  in  any  other  light,  had  no  meaning  01 
reason  whatever,  might  have  come  into  use  notwithstanding, 
through  mere  human  fancy,  and  without  any  regard  at  first  tc 
the  end  which  afterwards  they  were  made  to  respect. 

However,  therefore,  some  Vave  imagined  that  the  use  of 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  85i/ 

sacrifices  originated  at  first  from  men  themselves,  without  any 
Divine  direction,  and  have  attempted  to  show  how  they  might 
have  been  led  to  adopt  the  strange  and  unnatural  service ;  it 
is  clear,  that  as  reason  finds  such  a  supposition  attended  with 
much  difficulty,  and  feels  dissatisfied  with  every  explanation 
brought  for  its  relief,  so  the  whole  representation  of  the  Bible 
urges  us  to  embrace  a  different  sentiment.  True,  we  are  not 
told  explicitly  that  God  directed  men  in  the  beginning  to  wor- 
ship him  in  this  way :  but  the  nature  and  design  of  the  ser- 
vice are  declared,  and  are  found  to  be  such  as  to  forbid  all 
thought  of  its  having  sprung  from  any  other  source  than  the 
express  appointment  of  the  Most  High.  And  what  is  thus  in- 
directly discovered,  with  almost  irresistible  evidence,  is  still 
farther  confirmed  by  the  historical  account,  so  far  as  it  reaches, 
which  we  have  of  ancient  sacrifices.  All  along,  before  the  a_r 
of  Moses,  we  find  them  constantly  employed  by  the  people  of 
God  as  an  essential  part  of  true  religion,  and  honoured  and  ac- 
cepted, and  in  certain  cases  ordered,  of  the  Lord  himself,  us 
being  not  mere  indifferent  rites,  but  acts  of  piety  of  the  first 
importance,  and  peculiarly  well  pleasing  in  his  sight :  all  which 
would  be  strange  indeed,  if  they  had  originally  started  out  of 
human  will-worship,  and  had  no  respect  at  all  in  their  design 
at  that  time  to  the  GREAT  SACRIFICE  to  come,  (as  on  such  a 
supposition  it  must  be  believed,)  but  were  used  altogether  ac- 
cording to  some  different  view  that  led  at  first  to  the  practice 
of  them,  which  view  must  necessarily  be  considered  at  the 
same  time  to  have  been  mistaken  and  false.  But  we  are  not 
left  with  the  mere  information  that  these  early  sacrifices  were 
in  use,  to  imagine  that  they  might  have  been  offered  with  a 
view  altogether  different  from  what  was  most  particularly  con- 
templated afterwards  in  those  that  were  prescribed  by  the 
Jewish  law.  We  have  satisfactory  evidence,  that  before,  as 
well  as  after,  the  introduction  of  that  law,  the  shedding  of  blood 
in  sacrifice  was  regarded  as  an  expiatory  rite,  having  reference 
to  guilt,  and  signifying  that  without  atonement  there  could  b« 
no  forgiveness  or  Divine  favour  bestowed  upon  the  sinner. 
That  such  was  the  fact,  is  abundantly  manifest  from  the  no- 
tion found  to  have  been  entertained  among  heathen  nations  in 
every  age,  that  the  anger  of  H  >aven  was  to  be  appeased  by 
bl<Mxly  sacrifices,  and  that  they  could  avail  to  do  away  tho  of- 
feii.-ive  guilt  of  injury  and  crime;  for  these  heathen  sacritk-es, 
that  have  been  common  in  every  quarter  of  the  world,  were 
not  borrowed  in  any  measure  from  those  of  'he  Jews,  but  had 
their  origin  much  farther  back  from  those  tl  it  were  in  use  ID 
the  earliest  times,  when  the  family  >f  man  was  not  yet  multi 


356  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

plied  into  different  nations,  or  scattered  over  the  fa»«  of  tb« 
earth.  Besides  all  this,  toe,  we  are  expressly  informed  that 
the  patriarch  Job,  who  was  accustomed  to  worship  God  with 
these  ancient  sacrifices,  offered  them  with  a  special  reference 
to  sin ;  and  that  the  Lord  himself  required  bumt-offerinejs 
from  his  three  friends,  to  make  expiation  for  their  offence,  and 
to  turn  away  his  wrath,  that  was  kindled  against  them.  (Job 
i.  5,  xlii.  7 — 9.)  It  being  clear,  therefore,  that  while  sacri- 
fices, before  the  time  of  Moses,  were  held  to  be  an  essential 
part  of  religious  worship,  they  were  regarded  to  be  such,  es- 
pecially on  account  of  their  expiatory  meaning,  the  same  by 
which  they  were  so  remarkably  distinguished  under  the  law, — 
we  aie  furnished  with  very  conclusive  evidence  that  they  were 
suggested  and  enjoined  from  the  first,  by  no  other  than  that 
God  who  formed  the  design  of  the  True  Atonement,  before  the 
foundaticn  of  the  world,  and  employed  them  so  extensively  and 
systematically,  to  shadow  forth  its  mystery  in  the  Ceremonial 
system  of  the  Jews. 

This  conclusion,  so  far  it  rests  on  historical  grounds,  becomes 
still  clearer  when  we  go  backward  under  the  guidance  of  reve- 
lation, and  find  this  service  in  use,  not  merely  before  the  flood, 
(as  appears  from  the  distinction  of  animals  thus  early  into 
clean  and  unclean,  and  also  by  Noah's  sacrifice  when  he  came 
out  of  the  ark.  that  was  so  acceptable  to  the  Lord,)  but  in  the 
faniih  of  Adam  himself,  in  the  earliest  age  of  the  earth.  Wo 
read  of  Cain  and  Abel  offering  sacrifices;  and  it  is  so  men- 
tioned  as  to  leave  the  impression  that  such  worship  was  not  a 
new  thing  in  this  case :  it  had  been  practised  undoubtedly  be- 
fore that,  if  not  by  these  brothers  themselves,  yet  at  lea«t.  by 
their  father.  But  can  it  for  a  moment  be  imagined,  thct 
Adam  should,  of  his  own  accord,  have  conceived  the  notion, 
directly  after  the  fall-  that  God  wo  ild  be  pleased  with  having 
the  blood  of  peaceful  animals  pouivd  out  before  him  in  solemn 
offering,  when,  as  yet,  the  liberty  of  using  their  flesh  in  any 
'way  for  food  had  not  been  granted?  Are  we  not  rather,  in 
order  to  account  for  his  practice  in  this  respect,  driven  to  the 
conclusion,  that  God  himself,  immediately  after  his  ruin,  when 
He  revealed  even  then  the  promise  of  the  New  Covenant,  ap- 
pointed sacrifice  to  be  a  standing  pledge  of  its  grace,  and  the 
special  means  by  which  faith  should  be  enabled  to  lay  hold 
upon  its  blessings,  until  the  fulness  of  time  should  conn-  for 
the  full  manifi'sUition  of  that  great  Real  Atonement,  on  whick 
the  whole  plan  of  mercy  was  to  be  builded  and  secured  '(  Thus, 
while  the  institution  became  a  continual  monument  of  guilt 
ii,  1  death,  introduced  by  sin,  ever  calling  them  into 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  857 

orance,  it  was  ordained  to  be  at  the  same  time  a  rare  sign  of 
salvation  and  life — a  SACRAMENTAL  MEMORIAL  as  one  hae 
expressed  it,  xhwciny  forth  the.  Lord's  death  until  he  came,  by 
the  believing  use  of  which,  the  full  benefit  of  that  death  might 
be  secured  to  the  soul.  In  this  way  our  first  father,  it  seems, 
was  instructed  to  exercise  his  faith  and  find  spiritual  encou 
ragement,  when  there  was  yet  none  but  himself  and  his  guilty 
partner  in  the  world.  It  has  been  supposed,  with  much  proba- 
bility, that  the  animals  whose  skins  were  employed  at  first  to 
make  garments  for  them,  were  slain  and  offered  up  as  sacri- 
fices by  the  direction  of  God.  What  was  thus  required  to  be 
observed  by  the  first  man,  as  a  necessary  part  of  acceptable  re- 
ligious worship,  was  appointed  at  the  same  time  to  be  observed 
by  his  posterity,  and  it  became  his  duty  accordingly  to  acquaint 
his  immediate  descendants  with  its  meaning  and  obligation,  so 
as  to  have  the  use  of  it  handed  down  from  generation  to  gene- 
ration. Thus  it  was  made  a  solemn  duty  to  worship  the  Lord 
by  this  method — to  make  penitent  acknowledgment  of  sinful- 
ness  and  desert  of  death  in  the  symbolic  substitution  of  an  un- 
offending victim  to  bleed  at  the  altar,  and  to  show  at  the  same 
time  a  believing  confidence  in  the  Divine  plan  for  taking  away 
guilt,  though  it  was  not  yet  understood,  by  loosing  in  this 
way,  with  simple  obedience,  for  reconciliation  and  acceptance. 
To  make  use  of  sacrifice,  then,  according  to  the  command- 
ment of  God,  and  with  the  temper  that  has  just  been  men- 
tioned, was  in  any  case  an  evidence  of  piety  and  faith.  Thus 
did  Abel  bring  an  offering  of  the  best  of  his  flock,  and  pre- 
sented it  as  a  bloody  sacrifice  to  the  Lord  :  and  hence  he  is 
commended  to  our  notice  as  an  example  of  faith,  by  which,  it 
is  said,  his  sacrifice  was  nnuv  acceptable  on  this  occasion  than 
that  of  his  brother  Cain.  (Hob.  xi.  4.)  This  faith  clearly  sup- 
poses a  Divine  appointment,  to  which  if  had  respect,  and  in  the 
end  of  which  it  had  full  confidence,  showing  lx>th  by  a  simple 
obedience  to  the  direction  that  had  been  given,  in  the  whole 
manner  of  its  service.  Cain,  on  the  other  hand,  evinced  no  such 
faith  :  he  offered  a  sacrifice,  but  there  was  something  in  the 
service  that  was  wrong — not  in  conformity  with  the  Divine  di- 
rection, and  accordingly  it  was  not  accepted.  Now  if  wo  in- 
quire wherein  this  wait  of  faith  particularly  was  found,  it  sceus 
by  no  means  an  unlikely  answer  that  has  boon  given,  tli.it  <'i 
wv/s  in  rt'fitxhxj  to  »ff<  r  <t  Mtxtt/y  snrrijin;  tin  (!inl  /UK/  nijitln-ii, 
antt  thus  ifiari-i/iin/iii;/  all  tlif  liii/li  and  «,•../<  inn  </•  si'/iis  fur 

wkirh  tin  institution  mis  (tj>ji<>i'n/>  </.  He  seems  to  have  fol- 
lowed his  own  reason,  rather  than  the  OMtmoiufoMti  of  ll<n 
vent  and,  because  he  could  discern  no  propriety  in  the  slay  inp 


858  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

of  an  animal  as  an  act  of  religious  worship,  to  have  pe»-«uad«d 
himself  that  an  offering  without  blood  was  the  most  suitable 
to  be  presented  to  a  God  who  was  infinitely  merciful  and  good. 
Thus  he  made  no  account  of  his  own  sinfulness,  and  slighted 
the  blood  of  atonement,  presumptuously  pretending  to  come 
before  the  Holy  One,  as  if  he  had  never  offended,  and  the  Tay 
had  been  free  of  all  hinderance  to  the  throne  of  mercy. 

It  has  been  generally  believed,  that  the  way  in  which  God 
discovered  his  acceptance  of  Abel's  sacrifice,  was  by  causing 
%e  to  descend  in  a  miraculous  manner,  and  consume  it,  while 
that  of  Cain  received  no  such  mark  of  regard.  It  is  clear  that 
•tome  open  and  striking  sign  of  his  approbation  was  given,  that 
was  easy  to  be  understood  ;  and  it  must  be  acknowledged  alto- 
gether probable,  that  it  was  no  other  than  this,  which  was  in 
certain  cases  made  such  a  token,  we  know,  in  later  times. 
Thus  the  Lord  test ified  of  his  yifts,  and  showed  himself  well 
pleased  with  the  piety  that  presented  them,  while  those  of 
Cain  were  left  without  approbation  and  without  notice.  We 
find,  in  subsequent  history,  repeated  instances  in  which  the 
Divine  acceptance  of  sacrifices  wr^s  testified  in  this  same  way. 
Thus  the  Lord  answered  David  and  Elijah,  and  thus  he  fur- 
nished the  altar  with  holy  fire,  directly  after  the  consecration 
of  the  tabernacle  first,  and  afterwards  of  the  temple.  (Lev. 
ix.  24,  Judg.  vi.  21,  1  Kings  xviii.  38,  1  Chron.  xxi.  26, 
2  Chron.  vii.  1.)  Whence  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that 
the  same  token  was  given  also  in  other  cases,  where  God  is 
Baid  to  have  accepted  the  service,  though  it  is  not  expressly 
mentioned ;  and  it  is  by  no  means  unlikely,  that  all  along 
from  the  beginning,  such  displays  of  heavenly  approbation 
were  often  granted,  for  the  encouragement  of  faith,  and  to  put 
honour  upon  the  Divine  institution  of  Sacrifice. 

As  God's  people  are  sometimes  Ji</uriifu-rly,  not  properly, 
represented  to  be  pri  •»/«,  so  the  various  kinds  of  spiritual  ser- 
vice with  which  th«y  honour  him  are  not  unfrequently,  in 
the  same  figurative  way,  spoken  of  as  sacrifices.  As  among 
the  Jews,  offerings  of  this  sort  entered  so  very  extensively  into 
their  whole  system  of  worship,  and  were  in  their  nature  ex- 
pressive of  different  pious  feelings,  unaccompanied  by  which 
they  had  no  worth,  it  was  altogether  natural,  that  the  language 
of  piety  should  borrow  from  their  use  a  great  number  of 
images,  and  mingle  in  its  habitual  phraseology  a  great  variety 
of  terms  derived  from  the  altar  and  its  solemn  rites.  Thug, 
accordingly,  we  find  it  all  through  the  sacred  volume.  The 
Psalms,  especially,  and  the  writings  of  the  prophets,  abound 
with  this  sort  of  imagery  and  allusion.  We  meet  with  it  alsr 


BIMLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  359 

repeatedly  in  the  New  Testament :  we  are  urged  to  present 
our  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  unto  CW,  to 
offer  continually  the  sacrifice  of  praise,  &c. ;  so  we  hear  Paul 
speaking  of  his  ministry  among  the  Gentiles  as  a  priestly 
work,  and  of  their  conversion  as  an  offering,  rendered  through 
bis  instrumentality,  to  the  Lord;  and  again,  of  his  life  being 
poured  out  as  a  drink-offering  upon  the  sacrifice  and  servic* 
of  their  faith.  (Rom.  xii.  1,  xv.  16,  Phil.  ii.  17,  2  Tim.  iv.  6, 
Hub.  xiii.  15,  16,  1  Pet.  ii.  5.) 


CHAPTER  VI. 
SACRED  TIMES  AND  SOLEMNITIES. 

As  certain  places  were  more  holy  than  others  in  the  Jewish 
economy,  and  were  honoured  with  special  regard,  so  there  were 
certain  hours  and  days  aud  seasons,  considered  in  like  manner 
more  sacred  than  other  times,  and  distinguished  accordingly 
by  particular  religious  observances.  These  now  call  for  our 
notice,  and  will  lead  us  to  contemplate  in  order  the  regular 
public  worship  of  the  sanctuary ;  as  this,  of  course,  was  de- 
termined to  such  stated  times  from  year  to  year. 


SECTION  I. 
THE   DAILY   SERVICE. 

THERE  was  a  regular  public  service  required  to  be  performed 
every  morning  and  every  evening.  Each  altar  was  to  smoke 
so  often,  at  least,  with  its  appropriate  offering,  presented  in 
behalf  of  the  whole  nation.  (Ex.  xxix.  38 — 42,  xxx.  7,  8.) 
The  hours  at  which  these  sacrifices  were  regularly  performed, 
came  naturally  to  be  considered  as  somewhat  sacred  and  art 
prnpriate  in  a  peculii.r  manner  for  the  business  of  devotion. 

The  law  prescribed  no  precise  time  for  the  service  af  the 
morning,  but  directed  that  the  offering  of  the  second  lamb 
should  take  place  brtwi-i-n  the  lim  <•/•/•/* /m/s.  It  is  not  rlrar. 
however,  whether  the  lirst  evening  began  originally,  according 
to  the  way  of  reckoning  that  was  used  in  later  ages,  som*-  time 
b-fvre  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  and  with  it,  gave  place  U 
the  second ;  or  whether  it  only  commenced  itself  at  suiuet 


BoO  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

and  yielded  to  the  other  at  dusk.  Of  the  particular  manner, 
moreover,  of  either  service  before  the  captivity,  we  ha\n  no 
account.  Tn  later  times,  though  confoimed  as  far  as  there 
was  knowledge  to  ancient  usage,  it  was  no  doubt  in  many 
respects  different  from  what  it  had  originally  been,  especially 
by  reason  of  various  vain  ceremonies  added  to  it,  such  as  were 
so  abundantly  multiplied  during  the  second  temple,  in  every 
part  of  the  national  religion.  The  Daily  Service,  as  it  was 
thus  found  in  the  age  of  our  Saviour,  is  described  with  suffi- 
cient fulness  in  the  Jewish  writings,  according  to  the  very 
ancient  tradition  of  their  ancestors.  The  following  is  a  brief 
summary  of  the  account  of  it  that  has  been  collected  from 
this  quarter. 

The  priests  who  were  on  duty  at  the  temple  had  their  chief 
place  of  residence,  when  not  immediately  engaged  in  their 
public  work,  in  the  north-west  corner  of  the  Court  of  Israel. 
Here  was  a  very  large  building,  having  a  great  room  in  the 
middle  of  it,  with  four  others  of  leas  size,  that  opened  into  this, 
and  were  placed  around  it,  one  at  each  corner.  This  central 
hall  was  styled  the  House  of  lm ruin;/,  because  a  fire  was  kept 
constantly  in  it,  in  cold  weather,  by  which  the  priests  might 
warm  themselves  during  the  day,  when  chilled  in  their  work, 
and  be  kept  comfortable  through  the  night.  Here  the  princi- 
pal one  of  their  three  particular  guards,  or  watches,  was  con- 
tinually stationed.  Such  as  were  not  required  to  continue 
awake  in  this  service  sought  sleep  for  themselves  on  benches 
round  about  the  room,  or,  if  they  were  of  the  younger  class, 
on  the  naked  floor  itself.  Having  thus  passed  the  night,  they 
were  required  to  have  themselves  in  readiness  here,  very  earlj 
in  the  morning,  for  going  forth,  according  to  order,  to  engag* 
in  the  business  of  the  day.  This  readiness  consisted  in  being 
bathed  and  dressed  in  their  sacred  garments.  No  one,  it  was 
held,  might  go  into  the  Court  where  he  was  to  serve,  until  he 
had  washed  his  whole  body  in  water;  and,  accordingly,  they 
had  several  rooms  fitted  up  as  bathing-places  for  this  purpose. 
After  this  first  washing,  it  was  not  commonly  necessary  to 
wash  again  during  the  day,  more  than  the  hands  and  the  feet: 
that,  however,  was  to  be  done  every  time  any  one  came  into 
the  Court  of  the  priests,  after  having  gone  out,  no  matter  how 
frequently  this  might  be. 

Thus  ready,  they  waited  till  one  styled  the  Pn-s!<1,-nt  came, 
according  to  his  office,  to  lead  them  forth,  and  assign  them 
their  duties.  When  he  was  come,  they  all  passed  together  out 
into  the  Court,  with  candles  in  their  hands,  and  there,  dividing 
themselves  into  two  companies,  began  solemnly  to  move  round 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIK*  3<>J 

tls  temple,  half  taking  to  the  right,  and  the  other  half  to  the 
left  Having  met  on  the  oppo;,ite  side,  the  inquiry  was  madr, 
/*  all  safe  and  icdl?  and  the  answer  returned,  Yr*,  nil  in  well; 
and  then  immediately  the  pastry-man,  who  had  his  chamber 
in  that  quarter,  was  called  upon  to  get  ready  the  cakes  for  the 
high-priest's  daily  meat-offering.  After  this,  they  all  with- 
drew to  a  particular  room,  in  a  building  of  considerable  sixe, 
th:it  stood  at  the  south-east  corner  of  the  court,  for  the  purpose 
of  having  it  determined  by  lot,  who  should  perform  the  first 
duties  of  the  day.  This  was  done  by  the  president. 

The  first  lot  designated  the  one  who  should  cleanse  the  altar 
of  burnt-offering;  and  as  soon  as  it  was  made  known,  he  went 
out  and  set  about  his  work.  His  particular  part,  however,  was 
merely  to  make  a  beginning  in  this  service,  which  was  re- 
garded as  an  honourable  privilege,  and  not  by  himself  to  carry 
it  through;  as  soon  as  he  had  so  done,  other  priests  came  to 
his  assistance,  and  separating  any  pieces  that  might  be  left  of 
the  last  day's  evening  sacrifice  to  the  one  side,  scraped  to- 
gether the  ashes,  and  had  them  in  a  short  time  carried  away, 
so  as  to  leave  the  altar  fit  for  new  employment.  These  ashes 
were  borne  to  a  place  without  the  city,  where  the  wind  could 
not  easily  scatter  them,  and  no  person  might  ever  put  them  to 
any  use  whatever.  The  cleansing  of  the  altar  in  this  way  was 
begun,  on  common  days,  at  the  dawn  of  day;  but  during  the 
three  great  festivals,  much  sooner,  and  on  the  day  of  atmu- 
ment,  as  early  as  midnight  itself.  The  work  was  concluded 
by  putting  the  fire  in  order,  and  placing  in  it  any  pieces  that 
were  left  of  the  last  offered  victim,  so  as  to  have  them  com- 
pletely consumed. 

This  first  service  over,  the  priests  withdrew  again  to  the 
room  where  the  lot  was  given,  and  had  a  second  class  of  duties 
distributed  among  thirteen  of  their  number.  One  of  these 
duties  was  to  kill  tJie  mornin<j  ri<  tim;  another,  to  */</•//</.•/<  ,ts 
blood;  a  third,  to  dregs  l/ie  altar  of  incense,  &c.  Half  of  them 
were  merely  to  carry  certain  particular  portions  of  the  sacrifice, 
after  the  lamb  was  slain  and  cut  up,  to  the  rise  of  the  altar, 
where  it  was  usual  to  lay  them  down  to  be  salted..  There 
were  two  more  lots,  a  little  after  this;  one  for  the  service  of 
presenting  the  incense  in  the  Holy  Place,  and  the  other  for 
that  of  taking  up  the  pieces  of  the  sacrifice  where  they  were 
first  laid  down,  and  bearing  them  to  the  top  of  the  altar  to  be 
burned. 

The  lamb  was  slain  as  soon  as  it  was  fairly  day.  It  was 
considered  a  matter  of  importance,  however,  that  it  should 
never  be  killed  earlier  than  this,  and  care  was  taken  to  hav? 

Si 


362  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

it  well  ascertained  beforehand,  that  day-light  was  truly  come. 
(•'»,  (the  President  was  accustomed  to  say,)  ami  fee.  MtCfa1  /: 
le  lime  to  kill  the  sacrifice.  Some  one  immediately  went  up 
to  the  top  of  one  of  the  buildings  about  the  court,  and  when 
he  saw  it  to  be  decidedly  day,  gave  the  word  aloud,  It  in  fair 
d«y. — But  is  the  heaven  bright  c(l  nj>  to  Hi-hron  ?  (the 
President  would  ask.)  Yes.  Go  then,  (he  would  say,)  on// 
briny  ttie  lamb  out  of  the  lamb-room.  The  lamb-room  was  one, 
of  those  that  were  in  the  great  building  that  has  been  men- 
tioned, at  the  north-  vrest  corner  of  the  court,  in  the  middlo 
hall  of  which,  most  of  the  priests  were  accustomed  to  pass  the 
night.  There  were  always  as  many  as  six  lambs  kept  in  it, 
ready  for  sacrifice.  When  the  victim  was  brought  to  the 
altar,  although  it  had  been  well  examined  before,  it  was  again 
diligently  searched  all  over  with  the  light  of  candles,  to  be 
sure  that  it  was  perfectly  free  from  imperfection  and  Memi>h. 
Those  whose  business  it  was,  then  proceeded  to  kill  it,  and 
dispose  of  it  according  to  the  common  manner  of  sacrifice. 
In  the  mean  time,  the  gates  of  the  court  had  been  thrown 
open,  the  trumpets  sounded  to  call  the  Levites  and  others  to 
their  attendance,  and  the  front  door  of  the  temple  itself  solemn- 
ly unfoldeu.  It  was  just  as  this  last  thing  was  done,  that  the 
person  who  had  to  kill  the  victim,  having  every  thing  ready, 
applied  the  instrument  of  death  to  its  throat.  While  the 
work  of  sprinkling  the  blood,  cutting  up  the  flesh,  and  carrying 
it  to  the  altar  then  went  rapidly  forward  without,  the  two  men 
on  whom  it  had  fallen  to  dref*  the  golden  altar  and  the  candle- 
stick were  found  at  their  business  in  the  Holy  Place.  All 
that  he  did  who  cleaused  this  altar  was  merely  to  brush  off 
the  ashes  and  coals  that  were  on  it  into  a  golden  dish  kept  for 
the  purpose,  which  he  then  left  standing  by  its  side.  The 
priest  who  dressed  the  lamps  examined  them,  lighted  such  -is 
were  gone  out,  supplied  them  with  oil,  &c. 

All  these  duties  being  accomplished,  the  whole  company  ol 
priests  betook  themselves  again  to  the  room  of  lots,  and  th<  re 
united  in  offering  up  a  short  prayer  to  God,  rehearsing  the  ten 
commandments,  and  saying  over  the  Shema*  as  it  was  styled— 
a  religious  form  consisting  of  certaia  passages  of  the  law. 
which  was  regarded  as  particularly  sacrea,  and  necessary  to 
l»e  repeated  on  a  variety  of  occasions.  The  Shema  was  so 
jailed  because  that  was  the  won!  with  which  it  always  began, 
meaning,  in  English,  Hear ;  for  the  passage  that  was  first  said 
over  was  Deut.  vi.  4 — 9,  which  begins,  "Hear,  O  Israel,'* 
&c.  And  the  other  passages  that  belonged  to  it  were  Deuf 
xi.  13 — 21,  and  Num.  xv.  37 — 41.  Not  only  wer»j  the  prie«- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  363 

iu  he  temple  required  to  say  over  this  Shema,  but  every  Jew. 
it  was  held,  was  bound  to  do  the  same  thing,  wherever  he 
might  be,  every  morning  and  every  evening.  This  s<  r\  i.  <• 
over  in  the  case  before  us,  the  lot  was  once  more  employe  I 
to  determine  the  persons  that  should  perform  the  next  duties, 
when  they  immediately  returned  to  the  court  of  the  sanctuary, 
to  carry  forward  the  morning  work. 

Then,  while  the  pieces  of  the  slaughtered  lamb  lay  duly 
Baited  upon  the  rise  of  the  altar,  and  ready  to  be  carried  to  its 
top,  the  offering  of  incense  was  solemnly  presented  in  the  Holy 
Place.  Two  person.?  were  always  employed  to  perform  the 
duty  :  one  took  in  his  hand  a  silver  dish,  in  which  was  a  cen- 
ser full  of  frankincense,  and  the  other  carried,  in  a  proper 
vessel,  some  burning  coals  from  the  summit  of  thu  brazen 
altar,  and  thus  together  they  passed  into  the  temple,  before 
they  entered,  however,  they  caused  the  great  sounding  instru- 
ment, that  was  provided  for  the  purpose,  to  ring  its  loud  note 
of  warning,  which  directly  brought  the  priests  that  might  be 
out  of  the  court,  and  any  of  the  Levite  musicians  that  hap- 
pened to  be  away,  to  their  proper  places,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  gave  all  the  people  notice,  that  they  should  be  realy  to 
put  up  their  prayers  with  the  incense  that  was  to  be  offVn  •!. 
The  two  priests,  also,  who  had  been  in  a  short  time  before  to 
dress  the  candlestick  and  the  altar,  now  went  in  a  set  >n  1 
time,  just  before  the  other  two  that  have  been  mentioned  :  but 
they  came  out  directly  again,  bringing  with  them  their  vessels 
of  service,  which  they  had  the  first  time  left  standing  in  the 
Holy  Place ;  and  quickly  after  them,  the  one  who  took  in  the 
censer  of  coals,  having  placed  them  upon  the  altar,  came  out 
in  like  manner,  leaving  his  companion,  who  had  to  offer  the 
incense,  alone  in  the  sacred  apartment.  There  Jv.  waited,  till 
the  President  without  willed  to  him,  with  a  loud  voice,  OJT>  r  : 
at  which  signal  he  caused  the  incense  to  kindle  upon  tli<- 
golden  hearth  ;  when,  all  at  once,  the  sanctuary  was  tilled  with 
its  cloud,  and  its  fragrant  odour  diffused  itself  all  over  the 
consecrated  hill,  while  the  multitude  without  united  in  solemn, 
silent  prayer;  and  oftentimes,  no  doubt,  there  went  up  from 
hearts,  like  those  of  Simeon  and  Anna,  the  breathings  of  truo 
and  fervent  devotion,  more  acceptable  to  the  Almighty,  f'.ir, 
than  all  the  sweetest  tribute  of  the  altar. 

-  MMMft  tt  tliis  offering  of  incense  and  prayer  was  concluded, 
the  person  whose  lot  it  was  to  lay  the  pieces  of  the  laml)  up  MI 
tne  altar  top,  with  as  much  despatch  as  possible,  committed 
them  to  the  sacred  (ire.  Then,  while  the  dark  smoke  ascended 
toward  heaven,  some  of  the  priests,  especially  those  win-  had 


864  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

just  been  in  the  Holy  Place,  took  their  station  upon  the  flight 
of  steps  that  led  up  to  the  entrance  of  the  Porch ;  and,  lifting 
their  hands  on  high,  solemnly  blessed  the  people  ;  one  of  them 
(who,  as  it  would  seem  from  Luke  i.  '21,  22,  was  alwajs  t!u 
same  that  offered  the  incense,)  taking  the  lead,  aud  pnv- 
uouncing  the  words  first,  and  the  others  falling  in  and  h:ivin^ 
them  over  all  along  just  after  him,  so  as  to  make  together  one 
united  benediction.  The  form  of  words  which  they  used  wa.i 
the  one,  so  beautiful  and  expressive,  that  is  found  in  Num  vi. 
24 — 26;  and  in  answer  t<i  it,  as  soon  as  it  was  uttered,  tlm 
people  returned  aloud,  Mcwif  l><  tin-  h>r<l  (lo<1,  the  (•<»!  >,f 
Israel,  from  ewrlastiny  to  <•<•<  rl«xtin</  .'  After  this  blessing, 
the  meat-offering  of  the  whole  eon  pv  Cation  was  jm-sentr  I. 
then  that  of  the  high-priest,  ami  last  of  all,  the  regular  drink- 
offering;  when,  immediately,  the  Levites  lifted  on  high  their 
song  of  sounding  praise,  after  the  manner  that  has  been 
already  described,  and  so  concluded  the  morning  worship 
It  was  r.ot  till  about  the  third  hour,  or  the  middle  of  the  fore- 
noon, that  the  whole  service  was  thus  finished,  and  hence  the 
Jews  were  not  accustomed  to  eat  or  drink  before  that  time  of 
day,  holding  it  improper  to  do  so,  until  after  this  stated  season 
of  sacrifices  and  prayer  was  over.  (Acts  ii.  15.) 

The  Evening  Service  began  about  the  ninth  hour,  or  the 
middle  of  the  afternoon.  (Acts  iii.  1.)  It  differed  only  in 
some  few  points,  of  no  importance,  from  that  of  the  morning, 
and  needs  not,  therefore,  any  separate  consideration.  Gene- 
rally, the  particular  duties  were  performed,  severally,  by  the 
same  persons  that  did  them  in  the  morning,  HO  that  no  new 
casting  of  lots  was  required. 

These  were  the  stated  sen-ices  of  every  day  ;  whatever  other 
duties  might  be  required  on  some  other  extraordinary  days, 
these  were  not  allowed  in  any  case  to  be  omitted.  Between 
the  sacred  seasons  of  the  morning  and  the  evening  worship, 
there  was  no  particular  regular  course  of  employment  in  thu 
temple :  yet  the  interval  was  not  unoccupied  with  acts  of  re- 
ligion ;  it  was  then,  that  other  common  sacrifices,  presented 
by  individuals,  were  brought  forward,  from  time  to  time,  to 
the  altar,  of  whatever  sort  they  might  be. 

Ye  shall  reverence  my  sanctuary,  was  a  holy  commandment 
of  the  Lord  himself,  and  all-reasonable  it  certainly  was,  that 
*o  solemn  a  place,  especially  in  the  time  of  public  worship, 
should  not  be  profaned  by  impious  or  thoughtless  folly.  The 
Jews  did  not.  therefore,  at  any  time,  manifest  a  too  careful 
regard  to  this  point,  however  solicitous  they  showed  them- 
wjlvcs,  in  a  certain  way,  to  have  it  secured  in  the  smallest 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIK8.  365 

thing*  But  their  zeal  was  not  sound  or  consistent  withal. 
It  became,  in  some  particulars,  trifling  and  superstitious,  while 
in  others,  it  showed  a  marvellous  indifference  to  the  whole 
honour  of  God's  House;  here,  as  in  many  other  cases,  it 
strained  out  a  ynat,  and  noallowed  a  camel.  Thus,  it  was 
held  unlawful  to  go  out  of  the  Court  of  Israel  by  the  same 
gate  that  one  came  in  by;  or  to  retire,  when  their  worship 
was  over,  any  other  way  than  walking  backwards,  lest  it 
should  seem  disrespectful  to  the  altar  and  the  sanctuary,  to 
turn  the  back  upon  them;  while  yet,  all  manner  S  worldly 
traffic  was  allowed  to  be  carried  on  in  the  outer  court,  without 
scruple  or  shame.  In  their  care,  too,  of  outward  forms,  they 
lost,  in  general,  all  concern  about  the  inward  temper,  which 
God  especially  regards.  Still,  much  of  this  attention  to  out- 
ward carriage  and  appearance  was  altogether  highly  becoming, 
since  true  reverence  toward  God  requires  this,  as  well  as  a 
right  spirit  in  the  soul,  and  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  tin; 
want  of  it  must  be  truly  offensive  in  his  sight.  No  person 
was  allowed  to  enter  the  ground  of  the  temple  with  a  staff  in 
Ms  hand,  or  with  his  scrip  on,  or  with  money  in  his  purse,  as 
if  he  were  coming  to  a  place  of  worldly  business;  neither 
might  be  go  in  with  dust  on  his  feet,  but  must  wash  or  wipe 
them  beforehand;  nor  might  he  spit  upon  the  sacred  pavement 
anywhere,  nor  might  he  pass  across  it,  when  going  to  sonib 
other  place,  because  it  happened  to  be  the  nearest  way ;  all 
which  things  would  have  been  disrespectful.  Nor  was  any 
light  or  careless  behaviour,  such  as  laughing,  scoffing,  or  idle 
talking,  allowed  to  be  indulged,  as  being  unseemly  and  irre- 
verent, in  such  a  place :  but  those  who  came  to  worship  were 
required  to  go  to  the  proper  place,  with  leisure  and  sober  step, 
and  there  to  stand  during  the  service,  each  with  his  feet  close 
uigether,  his  face  turned  toward  the  sanctuary,  his  eyes  bended 
downward  to  the  ground,  and  his  hands  laid  one  over  the  other 
upon  his  breast,  having  no  liberty,  in  any  case,  to  sit  down, 
or  lean,  or  throw  his  body  into  any  careless  posture  whatever. 
What  a  pity  it  is  that  such  a  regard  to  reverence,  in  outward 
carriage,  is  found  in  so  small  a  measure  in  most  Christian 
churches  !  How  little  sense,  alas  !  do  the  great  multitude  of 
those  that  visit  the  sanctuary  now,  seem  to  have  of  God's  pre- 
sence, oven  in  his  own  house,  as  they  come  with  light  and 
careless  movement  into  its  solemn  courts,  and  as  they  attend 
with  all  manner  of  outward  indifference  upon  its  sacred  »er- 
vices — bearing  on  all  their  looks  the  image  of  a  worldly  spirit, 
and  in  their  whole  deportment  showing  more  regard  to  them- 
n-lves  than  to  their  Maker!  Especially,  what  n  gpctncle  <>' 

31* 


360  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITI18. 

irreverence  is  often  displayed  in  the  time  of  prayer  :  whal 
.oving  of  the  eye,  indicative  of  roving  thought  within — whal 
.show  of  listless  languor  and  weariness,  that  denotes  a  mind 
empty  of  all  interest  in  the  business  of  the  place — what  un- 
seemliness of  posture  and  manner,  such  as  xittiiuj  without 
necessity,  lea ni'nt/  this  way  and  that  way,  lolllny  in  every  self- 
indulgent  attitude,  chan</!n</  positions  with  continual  impa- 
ir nee.  \c.,  all  evincing  the  little  impression  that  is  felt  of  the 
liiuli  Milemnity  and  importance  of  the  duty,  and  the  little 
jij.jin 'lu-^rtion  that  is  entertained  of  the  presence  and  the  ma- 
ji" .  v  and  the  infinite  glory  of  the  Being  that  is  worshipped, 
l»efi>re  whom  the  seraphim  are  represented  as  standing,  with 
their  faces  and  their  feet  covered,  as  they  cry,  in  continual 
atl.mitlon,  HoLY,  HOLY,  HOLY,  IS  TIIK  Lulll)  o*  HOSTS. 


.SECTION    II. 
THE   SABBATH. 

THE  origin  of  the  Sabbath  is  known  to  every  one  that  ha* 
read  the  first  three  verses  of  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis, 
or  learned  to  repeat  the  fourth  commandment.  It  did  noi 
take  its  rise,  like  other  sacred  days  and  seasons,  that  are  s-ion 
to  be  mentioned,  with  the  Jewish  system  of  worship,  that  was 
to  pass  away  ;  nor  was  it  instituted  for  any  ceremonial  reason, 
such  as  we  have  seen  had  place  in  the  case  of  sacrifices,  and 
of  the  priestly  office,  from  their  earliest  appointment.  Nay, 
so  remote  was  its  nature  from  any  such  character  as  this,  that 
it  was  originally  set  apart  for  the  use  of  beings  altogether  in- 
nocent and  holy;  for  the  seventh  day  was  sanctified,  or  de- 
clared more  holy  than  other  days,  In-fore  our  first  parents  were 
become  sinful  and  lost :  even  in  paradise,  where  all  days  were 
so  full  of  the  worship  of  God,  this  of  the  Sabbath  was  to  be 
distinguished  as  peculiarly  sacred,  and  to  be  observed  as  a 
continual  memorial  of  his  goodness  and  power  displayed  in  the 
great  work  of  creation. 

Wo  have  no  express  mention  made  of  it  again,  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  time  that  followed  before  and  after  the  flood,  till 
the  age  of  Moses,  (Ex.  xvi.  22 — 30;)  which  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  when  we  consider  how  very  brief  that  history  is 
There  is,  nevertheless,  sufficient  evidence,  that  it  was  not  for- 
gotten  among  the  people  of  God,  nor  altogether  among  those 
that  departed  fiom  the  true  religion.  Noah,  we  find,  reckoned 
Mine  by  periods  of  seven  days,  and  from  him  some  tradition  of 


THRLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  367 

tbe  Sabbath  and  of  the  week  passed  down  among  the  various 
tribes  and  nations  of  his  descend  xnts,  in  every  part  of  the 
world,  as  has  been  more  particularly  in  n'i'm.'d  already,  when 
taking  notice  of  the  ancient  manner  of  dividing  time,  in  a 
former  p;irt  of  this  work. 

When  God  formed  his  covenant  with  the  Israelitish  nation, 
the  ancient  appointment  of  the  Sabbath  was  solemnly  called 
to  remembrance,  and  clothed  with  fresh  authority.  Jehovah 
himself,  from  the  midst  of  the  awful  darkness,  uttered  the 
commandment,  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people.  (Ex.  xx. 
8 — 11.)  It  was  .still  uttered,  too,  as  in  the  beginning,  not  as 
a  precept  designed  for  a  single  dispensation  merely,  but  as  a 
statute  of  universal  and  perpetual  obligation :  it  was  given  as 
one  of  the  ten  commant/ments,  which  comprehended  the  whole 
nwral  law,  and  were  proclaimed  to  the  ancient  church,  as  the 
original  and  fundamental  rule  of  God's  moral  government, 
that  was  never  to  be  lost  sight  of,  while  the  world  should  stand. 

At  the  same  time,  however,  the  Sabbath  was  made  to  bear 
something  of  a  peculiar  character,  also,  in  the  Jewish  economy, 
such  as  it  hod  not  before,  and  was  not  designed  to  retain  after- 
wards. It  was  invested  with  a  certain  ceremonial  sacredness, 
in  addition  to  that  which  it  had  of  a  purely  moral  sort.  At 
least,  it  was  required  to  be  kept  with  a  peculiar  kind  of  out- 
ward observance,  that  belonged  only  to  that  system  of  carnal 
ordinances  which  was  imposed  on  the  Israelitish  church  till 
the  time  of  reformation.  Hence,  the  apostle  reckons  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  among  other  ceremonial  institutions,  that 
were,  he  says  "a  shadow  of  things  to  come."  (Col.  ii.  16,  17.) 
Still,  the  original  and  more  essential  nature  of  this  institution 
was  never  suffered  to  pass  out  of  sight ;  but  may  be  found  to 
have  been,  all  along,  distinctly  recognised,  in  the  peculiarly 
solemn  authority  with  which  its  obligation  was  enforced,  and 
in  the  moral  and  spiritual  character  of  the  observance  with 
which  it  was  enjoined  to  be  kept,  as  well  as  of  the  reasons  still 
assigned  for  its  sacredness.  (Ex.  xxxi.  13 — 17,  Lev.  xix.  30. 
Isa.  Iviii.  13,  Jer.  xvii.  21 — 27.)  To  tie  Israelites  it  was 
urged  as  an  additional  motive  for  them  to  remember  the  rest 
of  the  Sabbath,  according  to  its  ancient  appointment,  that  the 
Lord,  whose  day  it  was,  had  redeemed  them,  in  his  mercy  and 
by  his  mighty  power,  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt.  (Deut. 
v.  15.)  And  because  it  was  given,  from  the  beginning,  to  be 
a  memorial  of  God's  sovereignty,  as  the  Creator  and  Governor 
of  the  world,  and  was  designed  to  be  religiously  observed,  in 
pious  acknowledgment  of  this  supreme  dominion,  it  was  re- 
garded as  a  *iyn  of  the  covenant  that  \va ;  funned  between  hitt 


368  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

and  their  nation,  which  had  been  taken  out  of  the  ido!atr«Mi8 
world,  to  be  his  peculiar  people;  and  hence,  accordingly,  when 
they  neglected  the  Sabbath,  it  was  considered  to  be  a  profano 
violation  of  the  covenant  itself,  and  a  rejection  of  the  original 
sovereign  authority  of  God,  that  had  in  it  the  nature  of  idol.'itrj 
outright.  (Ex.  xxxi.  13 — 17,  Ezek.  xx.  20.)  The  punish- 
ment for  profaning  the  Sabbath  day,  like  that  of  idolatry,  wan 
nothing  less  than  death.  (Ex.  xxxv  2,  Num.  xv.  82 — 8(5  ) 

The  law  required  a  rigid  observante  of  the  sacred  day.  All 
the  common  employments  of  life,  lawful  on  other  days,  were 
forbidden  to  be  attended  to  on  this.  It  was  unlawful  even  to 
make  a  fire ;  and  a  man,  on  one  occasion,  was  put  to  death  for 
gathering  sticks  during  its  time  of  rest.  The  Jews,  however, 
carried  their  regard  to  its  outward  observance,  in  this  way,  in 
later  times,  to  a  superstitious  length.  While  they  honoured 
it  with  little  or  no  genuine  regard  in  their  spirits,  they  affected 
a  most  scrupulous  care  of  offending  against  the  letter  of  the 
commandment,  in  their  actions :  and  yet,  even  in  this  case, 
they  showed  great  inconsistency,  sometimes  strain  in;/  out  a 
gnat,  and  at  other  times  swallowing  a  camel.  The  Pharisees, 
especially  in  the  days  of  our  Saviour,  laid  claim  to  great  con- 
gcientiousness  on  this  point,  and  often  found  fault  with  him 
for  disregarding,  according  to  their  notion,  the  sacredness  of 
God's  day;  though,  all  the  while,  it  was  not  difficult  to  be 
perceived,  that  their  hatred  to  Jesus,  far  more  than  their  zeal 
for  the  Sabbath,  called  forth  their  censures  and  complain:-. 
Our  Lord  exposed  their  malevolence  and  inconsistency,  and 
taught  the  true  nature  of  the  sacred  day.  (Matt.  xii.  1  —  !.">, 
Luke  xiii.  10—17,  John  v.  16,  vii.  22,  23,  ix.  14,  16.) 

In  the  sanctuary,  there  was  no  rest  on  the  Sabbath  from 
the  labour  of  other  days;  but,  on  the  contrary,  an  increase  of 
work.  Besides  the  daily  offerings,  two  other  victims  were  re- 
quired still  to  smoke  on  that  day  upon  the  altar,  (Num 
xxviii.  9,  10;)  and  regularly,  as  we  have  seen,  the  old  shew- 
bread  was  to  be  removed,  and  a  new  supply  put  in  its  place. 
Thus,  the  priests  in  the  temple  profaned  the  Sabbath,  or  spent 
it  in  work,  and  yet  were  blameless.  (Matt.  xii.  5.)  It  was 
meet  that  the  public  service  of  God  should  not  be  diminished, 
but  increased  upon  his  own  day. 

It  was  usual  to  make  some  preparation  for  the  Sabbath 
toward  the  close  of  the  sixth  day.  (Mark  xv.  42.)  According 
to  the  Jews,  it  was  customary  to  cease  from  labour  on  that 
day  at  the  time  of  the  Evening  Sacrifice ;  and  from  that  hour 
till  the  sun  went  down,  all  busied  themselves  to  get  completely 
ready  for  the  holy  season  that  was  at  hand.  Victuals  wore 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQLITIES.  809 

pref\red,  (for  »hem  might  be  no  cooking  on  the  Sabbath,)  and 
all  things  attended  to  that  were  needful  for  orderly  and  decent 
appearance,  such  as  washing  the  face,  hands,  and  feet,  trim- 
ming the  beard,  &c.  that  the  day  of  rest  might  be  entered  upon 
without  confusion,  and  in  a  manner  of  reverence  and  respect. 
A  little  before  sunset,  the  Sabhath  candle  was  lighted  in  each 
house,  in  token  of  gladness  at  the  approach  of  God's  day.  A I 
dark,  they  spread  upon  the  table,  from  the  provisions  previous- 
ly made  ready,  a  supper,  rather  better  than  common  ;  when  the 
master  of  the  family,  taking  a  cup  of  wine  in  his  hand,  re- 
peated the  words  in  Gen.  ii.  1 — 3,  blessed  God  over  the  wine, 
said  over  a  form  of  words  to  hallow  the  Sabbath,  and  raising 
the  cup  to  his  lips,  drank  off  its  contents;  after  which,  the 
rest  of  the  family  did  the  same ;  and  then,  having  washed 
their  hands,  they  all  joined  in  the  domestic  meal.  Thus  be- 
gaa  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day.  On  the  next  morning, 
they  resorted  to  their  synagogues :  or,  if  they  lived  at  Jerusa- 
lem, and  felt  an  inclination  to  attend  the  temple,  they  might 
go  and  worship  there.  After  breakfast,  they  either  went  to 
some  school  of  divinity,  to  hear  the  traditions  of  the  elders  ex- 
plained, or  employed  the  time  in  religious  duties  at  home,  till 
the  hour  of  taking  dinner.  About  the  middle  of  the  afternoon, 
they  again  betook  themselves  to  the  synagogue  or  the  temple, 
for  worship.  The  day  was  afterwards  closed  with  something 
of  the  same  sort  of  ceremony  with  which  it  had  been  introduced. 
In  this  way,  if  we  may  believe  Jewish  tradition,  the  Sabbath 
was  kept  under  the  second  temple. 

How  the  Sabbath  was  spent  before  the  captivity,  when  there 
were  no  synagogues,  we  are  not  informed.  Those  who  lived 
nigh  the  Sanctuary  might  attend  its  worship.  Parents  might 
instruct  their  children  in  the  knowledge  of  the  law,  as,  no 
doubt,  many  did  with  care,  regarding  the  Lord's  repeated  in- 
junction. It  seems,  also,  to  have  been  common  to  visit  the 
prophets  on  that  day,  to  receive  their  instruction  and  counsel. 
(2  Kings  iv.  23.) 

Our  Saviour,  who  was  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,  caused  it  to  be 
changed  from  the  seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  that  it 
might  be,  till  the  end  of  time,  a  memorial  of  his  resurrection 
from  the  dead ;  while,  boing  still  unaltered  in  its  essential  na 
turc,  it  should  continue  to  answer,  also,  as  before,  all  the  our 
)f  its  iriginal  institution. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQ'  ITII.8, 

SECTION   III. 
NEW    MOONS   AND    FEAST   OF   TRUMPETS. 

EVERY  New  Moon,  or  the  first  day  of  e>ery  month,  WM 
distinguished  by  a  certain  degree  of  sacredness  from  other  or- 
dinary days.  From  Amos  viii.  5,  we  learn  that  it  was  not 
considered  lawful  to  transact  worldly  business  on  such  days . 
When  will  (he  New  Moon  fa  ;/'»"',  the  wicked  are  represented 
as  saying,  Uiat  we  may  tell  corn  f  an<1  tin'  .V/A/WA,  t/mt  ire  may 
set  forth  wheat  f  Like  the  Sabbath,  also,  thoy  were  deemed 
fit  times  for  visiting  the  propheta  to  receive  instruction,  and 
these  holy  men,  it  seems,  were  accustomed  to  appropriate  them 
regularly  to  the  sacred  employment  of  giving  direction  and 
counsel  to  all,  of  every  class,  that  were  disposed  to  seek  it 
from  their  lips.  (2  Kings  iv.  23.)  At  the  Sanctuary,  the 
New  Moons  were  observed  with  particular  sacrifices,  over  and 
above  the  daily  sacrifices;  viz.  two  bullocks,  a  ram,  and  seven 
lambs,  with  their  meat-offering  and  drink-offering,  for  a  public 
holocaust  or  whole  burnt-offering,  and  a  goat,  besides,  for  a 
sin-offering.  (Num.  xxviii.  11 — 15.)  These  sacrifices  were 
attended  with  the  blowing  of  the  sacred  silver  trumpets.  (Num. 
x.  10.) 

There  was  one  New  Moon,  however,  distinguished  in  point 
of  importance  above  all  the  rest.  This  was  the  first  day  of 
the  seventh  month,-  Tishri,  and  so,  of  course,  the  first  day  of 
the  civil  year,  which  always,  as  we  have  seen,  commenced  with 
that  month.  It  was  more  sacred  than  other  New  Moons, 
being  especially  set  apart  as  a  Sabbath  or  day  of  rest  from  all 
common  work ;  for  the  law  did  not  forbid  such  work  in  the 
case  of  the  others,  although  it  was  considered  to  have  made  it, 
to  a  certain  extent  at  least,  improper  and  wrong,  as  has  just 
been  stated,  by  the  religious  regard  with  which  it  distinguished 
them  in  other  respects.  The  return  of  this  day,  which  ushered 
in  the  ancient  year,  was  required  to  be  announced  and  pro- 
claimed with  a  special  blowing  of  trumpets ;  whence  it  was 
called  "the.  day  of  trumpet  blmrini/,"  and  also  "  the  memorial 
of  blowing  of  trumpets."  It  was  honoured  at  the  Sanctuary 
by  peculiar  offerings :  the  law  prescribing  for  it,  in  addition  to 
the  sacrifices  presented  on  other  New  .Moons,  a  bullock,  a  HUD, 
and  seven  lambs,  for  a  burnt-offering,  and  a  second  goat,  as  it 
would  seem,  for  a  sin-offering.  (Lev.  xxiii.  25,  Num.  xxix 
1-6.) 

Thus,  the  montlis  and  the  year  were  sanctified,  as  it  were, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  37J 

by  having  the  first-fruits  of  their  time  still  consecrated  to  thf 
Lord :  thus,  the  Israelite  was  continually  reminded  that  his 
days,  as  well  as  his  cattle  and  his  crop,  were  all  given  to  him 
from  his  Maker,  and  could  not  be  employed  too  unreservedly 
in  his  service  and  for  his  glory.  It  were  well,  if  the  recollcc 
*ion  of  this  fact  could  be  habitually  pressed  upon  the  soul,  m 
every  age.  It  were  well,  if  Christians  could  be  brought  to 
feel  as  they  ought  that  they  are,  in  every  respect,  but  stew- 
ards for  God,  under  obligations  to  use  all  that  they  have  in  the 
way  that  may  be  most  for  his  praise,  and  for  the  advanc-'in  ut 
of  his  kingdom ;  and,  that  if  they  are  not  themselves  their 
own,  but  are  bound  to  glorify  God  with  body  and  with  spirit, 
as  altogether  his,  it  must  be  strangely  inconsistent  to  look  upon 
their  property,  or  their  time,  as  less  absolutely  sacred  for  his 
use,  (even  if  these  things  were  not  essentially  joined  together,) 
or  to  waste  or  misapply  them,  or  to  withhold  them  from  his 
service,  without  a  feeling  of  responsibility,  or  a  single  serious 
thought  of  the  reckoning  that  is  surely  to  take  place  with 
every  servant,  for  the  manner  in  which  he  shall  have  improved 
eacn  single  talent  given  him  to  occupy — not  for  himself,  but 
for  his  Lord.  (Matt.  xxv.  14 — 30.) 

These  New  Moons  differed  from  the  Sabbath  in  having 
only  a  ceremonial  sac-redness,  while  that,  as  we  have  seen,  was, 
in  its  original  institution,  altogether  of  moral  character.  With 
the  close  of  the  Jewish  dispensation,  accordingly,  they  lost  all 
their  distinction  in  this  respect:  (Gal.  iv.  10,  Col.  ii.  16:) 
whereas  the  Sdbbath,  to  this  day,  retains  the  whole  of  ite 
assential  nature,  and  the  full  measure  of  its  earliest  authority. 
Still,  there  can  be  no  impropriety  in  setting  apart  such  days, 
even  now,  for  particular  religious  employment,  as  being 
naturally  suited  for  profitable  use  in  this  way,  if  it  be  done 
voluntarily,  for  the  sake  of  pious  improvement,  and  not  through 
any  superstition.  And  certainly  a  special  propriety  there  is, 
that  the  first  day  of  the  year  should  be  observed  publicly  and 
privately  after  such  a  manner.  How  much  more  becoming 
ami  rational,  thus  to  recognise  thefliyht  of  time,  so  big  with 
awful  interest,  than  to  colebrate  it«  memorial  with  tr.e  shout 
of  revelry,  the  boisterous  laugh  of  folly,  or  the  light  ;ttruv» 
lance  of  festivity  and  mirth  ! 


372  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

SECTION   IV. 

THE   THREE    GREAT    FESTIVALS. 

THREE  times  every  year,  all  the  males  of  the  Jewish  nation 
who  were  of  sufficient  age  were  required  to  make  their  ap- 
pearance at  the  Sanctuary,  (the  tabernacle  at  first,  and  after- 
wards the  temple,)  for  the  solemn  worship  of  God.  "Three 
times  in  a  year,"  was  the  commandment,  "shall  all  thy  males 
appear  before  the  Lord  thy  God,  in  the  place  which  he  shall 
choose;  in  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread,  and  in  the  feast  <>f 
weeks,  and  in  the  feast  of  tabernacles  ;  and  they  shall  not  ap- 
pear before  the  Lord  empty ;  every  man  shall  give  as  he  is 
able,  according  to  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  he 
hath  given  thee."  (Ex.  xxiii.  14 — 17,  Deut.  xvi.  16,  17.) 
The  feast  of  weeks  lasted  only  for  one  day ;  the  feast  of  un- 
leavened bread  continued  as  many  as  seven,  and  that  of  taber- 
nacles, eiyht,  though  only  the  first  and  last,  in  each  case,  were 
considered  especially  sacred,  being  set  apart  from  all  common 
work,  except  such  as  was  needed  for  the  preparation  of  food. 
(Ex.  xii.  16.) 

It  was  on  these  occasions,  that  the  second  sort  of  first-fruits, 
firstlings,  and  tithes,  noticed  in  the  last  chapter,  were  pre- 
sented before  the  Lord,  and  then  converted,  according  to  his 
direction,  into  offcrinij-feaxts  of  sacred  gratitude  and  joy. 
Free-will  offerings,  also,  were  presented  more  abundantly  at 
these  times  than  through  all  the  year  besides,  and  made  use 
of  in  the  same  way;  for  those  who  lived  at  a  distance  still 
kept  such  offerings  till  they  were  called  to  attend  some  one 
of  the  festivals,  and  then  brought  all  their  different  gifts  to- 
gether to  the  House  of  God.  Thus,  all  came  furnished  with 
presents,  and  no  one  appeared  before  the  Lord  empty  ;  so  that 
the  most  liberal  provision  was  secured  for  the  religious  enter- 
tainments with  which  the  feasts  were  celebrated.  These 
entertainments  it  is  to  be  remembered,  were  required  to  be 
widely  social,  ax.i  to  be  made  free,  especially  to  the  destitute 
and  the  unfortunate.  In  this  way,  the  people  rejoiced  to- 
gether in  the  presence  of  their  God,  acknowledging  his  wonder- 
ful mercies,  and  showing  forth  his  praise ;  while,  at  the  same 
time,  they  were  drawn  with  kindly  regard  toward  each  other, 
and  led  to  mingle  their  hearts  in  general  benevolence  and 
friendship,  as  forming,  altogether,  only  a  single  happy  family, 
and  having  all  a  common  interest  in  the  kind  care  of  the  sauu, 
bountiful  and  com  passionate  Father.  During  these  festival-;, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  378 

ilso,  thtf  public  service  of  the  Sanctuary  was  increased  with 
additional  offerings,  over  and  above  the  daily  sacrifices,  pre- 
sented each  day,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  congregation. 
Thus,  with  public  and  private  sacrifices  together,  the  altar 
found  no  rest,  and  the  flowing  of  blood  was  not  stayed  from 
morning  to  night. 

THE   PASSOVER. 

The  feast  of  unleavened  bread  was  so  called  because,  while 
it  lasted,  no  leaven  whatever  was  allowed  to  be  made  use  of, 
but  unleavened  bread  alone  was  eaten  by  all  the  people.  It 
was  called,  also,  the  Passover,  because  it  was  instituted  in 
memory  of  that  night  of  mercy,  when  the  Lord  passed  over 
the  families  of  his  people,  while  he  carried  the  terror  of  death 
into  every  household  of  Egypt.  We  have  a  full  account  of  its 
original  appointment,  in  Exod.  xii.  1 — 28.  Income  circum- 
stances, indeed,  that  first  celebration  which  was  required  in 
Egypt  was  not  imitated  in  those  that  were  observed  after- 
wards ;  but,  in  all  essential  points,  the  example  of  it  was  ever 
after  followed.  The  festival  lasted  from  the  15th  to  the  21st 
of  the  month  Abib  or  Nisan,  the  first  of  the  sacred  year.  It 
always  fell,  accordingly,  in  the  time  of  our  month  April, 
though  it  came  in  some  years  several  days  sooner  than  it  did 
in  others,  as  we  have  seen,  when  considering  the  Jewish  man- 
ner  of  reckoning  time.  Sometimes,  the  14th  of  the  month 
was  termed  thejirst  day  of  unleavened  bread,  because  on  that 
day,  before  evening,  all  leaven  was  carefully  removed  from  the 
houses,  by  way  of  preparation  for  the  festival  week. 

The  principal  solemnity  of  the  season  was  the  sacred  supper 
with  which  it  was  introduced ;  and  this,  more  especially  and 
properly,  was  that  which  had  the  name  of  the  PASSOVER  ;  the 
rest  of  the  feast  being  called  so  from  it,  on  account  of  ite 
primary  importance.  This  supper  was  required  to  be  prepared 
by  every  family,  unless  is  cases  where  they  were  small,  when 
two  might  join  and  prepare  it  together.  Nor  were  any  who 
might  be  found  unconnected  with  families  allowed  to  neglect 
it;  such  had  either  to  find  admission  into  some  domestic 
society  for  the  occasion  or  to  form  themselves  into  companies 
of  proper  size,  and  so  keep  the  feast  by  themselves, 
itupper,  it  was  directed,  should  consist  of  a  whole  lamb  or  kid, 
a  mule  of  the  first  year,  without  blemish,  roasted  whole,  (thai 
i.s,  without  being  cut  up  after  it  was  butchered  and  dressed  ) 
and  served  up  with  unleavened  bread,  and  a  salad  of  bitter 
herbs.  The  victims  were  to  be  selected  on  the  10th  day  of 
the  month,  and  slain  on  the  evening  of  the  14th,  a  »hort  tiin 


874  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

before  the  15th  began  to  be  reckoned ;  with  the  commoner 
tnent  of  which,  at  night,  the  passover  suppers  were  made  rva<U 
and  eaten.  In  the  case  of  the  first  celebration  of  the  feast,  the 
lamb  of  each  family  or  company  was  killed  at  home,  and  its 
blood  sprinkled  upon  the  posts  of  the  door ;  but  afterwards, 
they  were  all  required  to  be  slain  at  the  Sanctuary,  and  tho 
blood  and  fat,  as  in  the  case  of  other  sacrifices,  appropriated  tc 
the  altar.  (Deut.  xvi.  1 — 7.)  The  people  were  ordered  to  cat 
the  first  passover  in  haste,  with  their  loins  girded,  and  in  a 
condition  of  full  readiness  for  an  immediate  journey ;  this 
manner,  however,  which  expressed  the  quick  and  sudden  de- 
parture which  they  were  compelled  to  make  out  of  Egypt, 
seems  not  to  have  been  observed  in  succeeding  time,  at  lea.-t 
not  in  the  latter  age  of  the  nation.  If  any  of  the  flesh  of 
these  sacrifices  was  not  eaten  on  the  night  of  the  fea«t,  it  was 
to  be  burned  the  next  morning. 

Various  ceremonies  were  attached  to  the  celebration  of  the 
Passover,  in  latter  times,  of  which  no  mention  is  made  in  the 
ancient  law.  The  following  is  a  brief  account  of  the  manner 
in  which  it  was  observed  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  according 
to  the  tradition  of  the  Jews. 

Individuals  might  bring  their  lambs  with  them  to  Jeru- 
salem :  but  it  was  more  common  to  purchase  them  at  the  tem- 
ple itself,  from  the  priests,  who  always  hud  a  large  supply  of 
suitable  ones,  ready  to  be  disposed  of  on  the  occasion ;  being 
accustomed,  it  would  seem,  to  select  with  care  beforehand, 
(probably  on  the  10th  day  of  the  month,)  from  the  general 
market  which  they  encouraged  to  bo  held  in  the  outer  court  at 
these  seasons,  such  as  were  every  way  free  from  blemish,  and 
to  have  them  in  readiness  for  as  miny  as  wanted  to  buy,  so 
that  tb0'  might  have  more  security  in  getting  their  victims 
that  they  were  altogether  sound  and  perfect,  as  the  law  re- 
quired, than  they  could  have,  if  left  to  look  for  them  tln-m- 
selves  in  the  market,  after  they  had  arrived  at  the  city.  It 
was  a  regulation,  that  no  lamb  should  be  used  for  less  than 
ten  persons :  each  family,  therefore,  or  company,  was  required 
to  have  at  least  that  number  of  members;  generally  they  had 
more,  and  sometimes  as  many  as  twenty.  They  were  all  de- 
termined and  fixed  before  the  victims  were  brought  to  be  slain. 

Women  were  not  directly  bound  to  appear,  as  the  males  were, 
at  any  of  the  three  Great  Festivals;  yet  it  was  held,  that  imti- 
rectly  the  law  made  it  their  duty  to  attend,  as  far  as  circum- 
stances might  allow:  especially  were  they  under  obligation,  it 
*as  maintained,  to  be  present  at  the  Passover,  inasmuch  as  it 
wa*  written,  "  The  tc/tofe  assemb/y  of  the  congregation  of  Israel 


BIRT.ICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  37t> 

jhall  kill  it."  (Ex.  xii.  6.)  They  were  accustomed,  thervfore, 
to  come  up  to  the  feast  regularly,  in  its  season,  with  their  hus- 
bands or  fathers.  Thus,  whole  families  attended  together, 
acd  most  of  the  paschal  societies  were  composed  of  one  or 
more  of  them,  husbands,  wives,  children,  and  servants,  united 
to  celebrate  the  sacred  supper.  In  other  cases,  the  companies 
were  formed  as  convenience  or  inclination  directed. 

It  is  easy  to  conclude,  that  every  room  in  Jerusalem  that 
was  large  enough  would  be  wanted  on  these  occasions,  to  ac- 
commodate the  vast  multitude  that  assembled  to  keep  the  feast 
The  Jews  have  a  tradition,  that  the  houses  of  the  city  were  all 
at  such  times  regarded  as  common  property,  and  were  opened 
to  admit  as  many  as  they  could  conveniently  receive,  without 
any  charge  whatever ;  so  that  strangers,  when  they  came  up 
from  any  part  of  the  nation,  might  make  use  of  any  one  they 
pleased  that  had  room  for  them,  free  of  all  expense,  and  as  a 
matter  of  right.  Some  have  thought,  that  the  inquiry  of  our 
Lord's  disciples,  "  Where  wilt  thou  that  we  prepare  the  pass- 
over  ?"  proceeded  upon  the  fact  of  such  a  usage ;  and  inti- 
mates, that  it  might  have  been  made  ready  anywhere  he  thought 
proper ;  and  hence,  also,  it  is  to  be  accounted  for,  they  imagine, 
that  the  man  to  whom  they  were  directed,  so  readily  gave  them 
the  use  of  his  guest-chamber  as  soon  as  they  asked  for  it. 
(Mark  xiv.  12 — 16.)  The  tradition,  however,  like  various 
other  pretty  stories  that  are  told  about  the  holy  city,  t*eems  to 
have  but  a  feeble  claim  to  credit :  and  certainly  it  is  not  needed 
to  explain  the  case  now  referred  to ;  since  the  question  of  the 
disciples  does  not  necessarily  imply  any  such  thing  ;us  it  affirms; 
and  it  was  as  easy  for  our  Saviour  to  control  the  mind  of  the 
man  whose  guest-chamber  he  wanted,  even  if  we  suppose  him 
to  have  been  altogether  unacquainted  with  him,  as  it  was  for 
him  to  make  the  owners  of  the  colt  content  when  it  was  said 
V>  them,  The  Master  hath  need  of  him,  or  to  rule  the  spirits  of 
the  powerful  and  the  prmd,  as  well  as  the  affronted  ttvlin.r> 
of  a  company  of  unprinu'pled  rogues,  when  twice  he  overturned 
the  tables  of  the  money  changers,  and  drove  from  the  tomplu 
those  that  profaned  il  with  their  worldly  traffic. 

Exceedingly  great  care  was  taken  to  have  every  particle  of 
leaven  cleared  from  the  houses  before  the  time  of  the  passovrr 
began.  The  law  on  this  subject  was  very  strict,  and  to  make 
sure  a  proper  observance  of  it,  the  most  diligent  pains  \\ 
considered  necessary.  As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  14t!i 
day.  that  is,  the  night  before  the  feast,  there  was  a  gen>.-nl 
search  made  all  over  every  house  with  lighted  candles,  n  >l 
living  unuxamincd  the  smallest  corner  or  hole  where  it  w  » 


376  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

possible  for  leaven  in  any  shape  to  be  lodged.  The  next  morn, 
ing  before  noon,  all  that  could  be  found  was  carefully  burned, 
or  thrown  into  the  water,  or  scattered  to  the  wind ;  and  every 
one,  as  he  thus  put  it  away,  was  accustomed  to  repeat  the  es- 
tablished form  of  execration,  "AH  tin'  Imn-ii  tint  is  u-it/iin  iin 
pouessivn,  ir/iirk  I  have  seen  or  irhich  I  haw  n»t  >•«/<,  11 -hii-h  1 
have  cast  out  or  which  I  have  nut  <-u.«t  out,  be  it  as  tltmnjh  it 
were  not!  be  it  as  the  dust  of  the  earth!"  Thus  was  every 
house  purged  for  the  celebration  of  the  passover ;  and  after 
this  it  was  not  considered  proper  even  so  much  as  to  make  use 
of  the  word  leaven,  lest  the  thought  of  it  should  pollute  t la- 
mind.  The  unleavened  bread,  which  was  now  prepared  for 
use,  was  baked  in  the  form  of  thin  cakes,  full  of  holes,  to  keep 
them  from  the  slightest  fermentation,  unseasoned  with  salt, 
and  made  only  with  water,  without  any  sort  of  oil :  in  some 
cases,  the  higher  class  of  the  people  had  them  nridbfed  with 
sugar  and  eggs,  though  even  such  bread  was  not  allowed  on 
the  first  day  of  the  feast,  but  only  on  those  that  followed. 

The  lambs  were  all  slain,  as  other  sacrifices,  in  the  Court  of 
the  priests.  It  was  a  great  work  to  kill  and  dress  so  many  as 
were  necessary  for  the  occasion,  and  required  a  considerable 
part  of  the  afternoon  of  the  14th  day  for  its  execution.  The 
Evening  Sacrifice  accordingly,  on  that  day,  was  offered  before 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  and  the  rest  of  the  day,  from  that 
time  to  the  end  of  it,  was  occupied  altogether  with  this  pre- 
paration for  the  passover.  Though  only  one  person  of  each 
family  or  society  entered  into  the  court  with  the  lamb  that  be- 
longed to  it,  it  needs  not  to  be  remarked,  that  it  was  still  im- 
possible for  all  these  to  go  in  at  once.  They  were  accordingly 
divided  into  three  large  companies,  which  were  admitted  one 
at  a  time  in  succession.  When  one  of  these  companies  bail 
entered,  thr  gates  were  closed,  and  immediately  the  owners  of 
the  lambs,  or  those  who  brought  them  in,  began  to  assist  each 
other  in  killing  them,  taking  off  their  skins,  and  removing  the 
entrails  and  fat.  The  blood  was  handed  to  the  priests,  to  be 
sprinkled  on  the  altar  and  poured  out  at  its  bottom,  and  the 
common  portions  of  fat  to  be  burned  upon  its  top ;  these  stand- 
ing  all  along  in  rows  from  the  slaughtering  places  to  the  altar, 
:iml  p.tssing  the  articles  from  one  to  another  continually  to 
where  it  stood.  Meanwhile,  the  Levites  sang  over,  once,  twice, 
ur  three  times  the  113th,  114th,  115th,  110th,  117th,  ami 
118th  Psalins.  These  were  denominated,  when  taken  tn<_reth.  i, 
the  /A////-/,  or  hymn  of  praise,  and  sometimes  the  Lrsmr  Hull' I, 
lo  distinguish  it  from  another  that  was  in  use,  styled  the 
Veater  Hallel.  As  soon  as  the  first  company  had  their  work 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  377 

iloue,  they  went  out,  and  the  second  Ijok  their  place,  going 
over  the  same  business  in  the  same  style  :  so  in  their  turn,  the 
third  one  tilled  the  court ;  after  which  it  was  all  washed  over 
with  water,  as  we  may  well  suppose  it  needed  to  be,  after  such 
an  immense  slaughter.  (2  Chron.  xxxv.  1 — 19.) 

The  laiul»  thus  butchered  were  carried  away  to  the  several 
houses  where  they  were  to  be  eaten,  and  immediately  made 
ready  for  roasting,  by  being  thrust  through  from  one  end  to 
the  other,  by  a  wooden  spit  or  stake,  and  so  placed  before  a 
large  fire.  According  to  the  commandment,  each  was  allowed 
to  be  thus  exposed,  till  it  was  roasted  in  a  perfectly  thorough 
manner.  Soon  after  it  became  dark,  that  is,  with  the  com- 
mencement of  the  15th  day,  the  passover-table  was  spread, 
and  surrounded  by  its  little  company,  in  all  the  houses  of 
Jerusalem. 

The  supper  commenced  with  the  ceremony  of  drinking  a 
small  cup  of  wine  mingled  with  water,  after  having  given 
thanks  over  it  to  God  the  Giver  of  all  blessings.  Every  one 
had  a  separate  cup  poured  out,  but  only  one  uttered  the  thanks- 
giving in  the  name  of  all.  This  was  the  Jirst  cup.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  washing  of  hands,  after  the  manner  of  the  purifying 
of  the  Jews,  accompanied  with  another  short  form  of  thanks- 
giving to  God.  The  table,  having  been  till  this  time  un- 
furnished, was  now  supplied  with  its  provisions,  viz.  the  cakes 
of  unleavened  bread,  the  bitter  salad,  the  lamb  roasted  whole, 
with  its  legs,  heart,  liver,  &c.,  and,  besides,  some  other  meat- 
prepared  from  the  flesh  of  common  peace-offerings,  that  had 
been  presented  during  the  day,  and  a  dish  of  thick  sauce,  com- 
posed of  dates,  figs,  raisins,  vinegar,  &c. 

The  table  thus  furnished,  the  leading  person,  and  all  the 
rest  after  him,  took  a  small  quantity  of  the  salad,  with  another 
thanksgiving,  and  ate  it.  After  which,  immediately,  all  the 
dishes  were  removed  from  the  table,  and  a  second  cup  of  wine 
placed  before  each  of  the  company,  as  at  first.  This  strange 
way  of  beginning  the  meal  was  designed  to  excite  the  curiosi- 
ty of  the  children,  that  they  might  be  led  to  inquire  what  it 
meaned,  according  to  what  is  said  in  Ex.  xii.  26.  When  the 
inquiry  was  made,  (for  if  there  was  no  child  present,  the  wife 
or  some  other  person  brought  it  forward,)  the  person  who  pre 
sided  began,  and  told  how  their  fathers  had  all  been  servant* 
MI  Egypt,  and  how  with  many  signs  and  wonders  the  Lord  had 
redeemed  them  from  their  cruel  bondage,  and  brought  them 
forth  from  the  place  of  their  oppression,  with  a  mighty  hand 
and  an  outstretched  arm.  As  he  concluded  the  interestnii; 
story  of  Jehovah's  is  ;rcies,  the  dishes  that  had  boen  rennni-.i 

32* 


37S  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

were  again  placed  upon  the  table;  whereupon  he  said,  Thi*  it 

'/!••  paxsorrr  ir/n'i/i  irr  nit.  l,n;u,*i-  llint  tin  Lnnl  y^/.sW  >,i  n 
the  houses  of  our  fath-  ra  in  h'</yj>t ;  and  then  holding  up  the 
salad,  and  after  it  the  unleavened  bread,  he  stated  their  design, 
riz.  that  the  one  represented  the  />iff> -r/n-ss  of  the  Egyptian 
bondage,  and  the  other  the  sudden  redemption  which  tin-  Lonl 
wrought  on  their  behalf,  when  he  smote  the  first-born  of  their 
oppressors,  ao  that  they  urged  his  people  to  depart  without 
delay.  Then  he  repeated  the  113th  and  114th  J'salms,  a;>«l 
closed  with  this  prayer:  "  Ji/iwd  I,,  -than,  O  L<>r<l  our  (>'>»l, 
Kimj  MlvateutAyl  who  hast  /•/•,/,,•//////  n*,  <u«l  r«l«n»<l  our 
fathers  out  of  Eijypt,  and  bromjht  us  to  tin*  n'ujht  to  cat  un- 
Icdwucd  bread  <m</  bilh-r  /n  /•/>.<:"  which  being  uttered,  all  the 
company  drank  the  wine  that  had  been  standing  for  some  time 
before  them.  This  was  the  Second  <  up. 

Another  washing  of  the  hands  now  took  place,  when  the 
person  who  presided,  taking  up  the  unleavened  broad,  brake 
one  of  the  cakes  in  two,  again  gave  thanks  to  God,  and  then, 
with  the  rest,  began  to  eat;  each  first  making  use  of  a  piece 
of  the  bread,  with  some  of  the  salad,  and  the  thick  sauce,  then 
partaking  of  the  peace-offering  meat,  and  last  of  all  of  the 
paschal  lamb,  with  a  separate  thanksgiving  still  pronounced 
before  each  dish.  Every  one  was  required  to  eat  at  least  as 
much  of  the  lamb  as  was  equal  to  the  size  of  an  olive.  The 
meal  thus  over,  they  all  washed  again,  according  to  the  usage 
of  common  meals,  and  then  united  in  drinking  another  cup  of 
wine  and  water.  This  was  the  third  cup.  and  was  called,  by 
way  of  distinction,  "the  cup  of  Waring"  because  while  it  stood 
before  them  ready  to  be  drunk,  the  leader  was  accustomed  to 
return  thanks  over  it  in  a  particular  manner,  for  the  blessing 
of  the  sacred  supper,  and  for  all  the  goodness  of  the  Lord. 
There  was  yet  another  cup  made  ready  a  little  time  atter,  just 
before  the  company  rose  from  the  table.  It  was  denominated 
the  cup  of  the  llallel;  because  it  was  the  custom  to  repeat,  in 
connection  with  it,  the  principal  part  of  the  hymn  of  Lesser 
llallel :  for  as  it  was  begun  )/  the  rehearsal  of  its  first  two 
psalms,  the  113th  and  the  114th,  ovir  the  second  cup,  (as  we 
have  seen,)  so  it  was  now  finished  by  being  carried  on  through 
the  following  four.  In  all  common  cases,  this  fourth  cup 
closed  the  celebration  of  the  feast.  It  was  held  to  be  a  duty 
absolutely  incumbent  upon  all  who  took  part  in  the  supper, 
men  or  women,  old  or  young,  rich  or  poor,  to  make  use  of  all 
the  four  cups  that  have  been  mentioned. 

In  the  account  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
Luke  xxii.  15 — 20,  mention  is  made  of  two  different  cups. 


B.BLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  379 

which  appear  to  have  been  the  last  two  of  the  four  that  have 
now  been  noticed.  Having  given  thanks  over  '.he  third  one, 
and  refused  to  drink  it  himself,  our  Saviour  took  some  of  the 
bread  that  was  left  of  the  fcust,  and  gave  thanks,  and  brake  it, 
in  representation  of  his  broken  body,  and  then  made  use  of 
the  cup  offer  supper,  or  the  fourth  one,  to  represent,  in  like 
manner,  the  shedding  of  his  blood,  after  which,  as  Matthew 
tells  us,  they  sang  a  hymn,  and  so  finished  the  solemn  enter- 
tainment. Others,  however,  suppose,  that  the  t/iird  cup  was 
the  one  which  was  used  in  the  appointment  of  this  holy  sacra- 
ment; because  they  think  it  clear,  from  its  being  said  that 
while  they  were  eatiny  Jesus  took  bread  and  brake  it  for  this 
purpose,  that  it  must  have  been  done  before  the  use  of  that 
cup,  and  not  after  it,  as  the  other  opinion  presumes. 

The  day  thus  entered  upon  with  the  paschal  supper  was 
holy :  till  the  going  down  of  the  next  sun,  it  was  not  lawful 
to  attend  to  any  common  work.  At  the  same  time  it  abounded 
with  sacrifices :  every  male,  the  Jews  tell  us,  was  under  obli- 
gation to  appear  in  the  temple-court,  during  the  course  of  it, 
with  a  burnt-offering  and  a  double  peace-offering.  These  par- 
ticular peace-offerings  were  called  the  Ifnyiyah,  and  were  con- 
sidered to  be  altogether  more  important  than  the  common 
peace-offerings  that  it  was  usual  to  present  on  other  days  of 
the  festival.  Hence  the  feast  in  which  they  were  on  that  day 
employed,  according  to  the  manner  of  such  sacrifices,  seems  to 
have  been  sometimes  styled  simply  by  itself,  the  jvissover  ; 
though  that  name  properly  belonged  only  to  the  paschal  sup- 
per of  the  evening  before.  Thus,  in  John  xviii.  28,  we  arc 
told,  that  the  Jews  went  not  into  Pilate's  judgment-hall,  lest 
they  should  be  defiled;  but  that  they  mlyht  eat  iftejMMMMP; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  clearly  stated  in  the  gospel  his- 
tory, that  the  celebration  of  the  true  passover  supper  had  taken 
place  the  preceding  night.  In  this  way,  also,  John  xix.  14 
may  be  explained;  unless  it  be  supposed,  that  tin-  f>n /mnititm 
of  the  Passover  mentioned  there,  means  simply  the  Piissuver 
prc}Hir<itinn  (/uy,  or  that  particular  preparation  day,  (as  every 
Friday,  or  day  before  the  Sal  jath,  was  called,)  which  fell  in 
the  week  of  the  Passover.  It  is  certain,  that  from  the  first, 
other  sacrifices,  besides  those  of  the  paschal  lahibs,  were  re- 
quired at  the  paschal  solemnity,  which  are  spoken  of  also,  a» 
making  a  part  of  tlie  Pas&tver  with  them.  (Dout.  xvi.  2, 
2  Chron.  xxxv.  7,  8.)  These,  according  to  the  Jewish  notion, 
were  all  along  made  use  of  as  peace-offerings  for  the  If<i</i;/<i/it 
i  sacred  feast  that  took  place  on  the  morrow  after  the  cele- 
tion  of  the  paschal  supper.  It  must  be  acknowledged, 


380  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

indeed,  that  there  is  no  direct  evidence  that  this  Hagigah  wa« 
ever  denominated  by  itself  the.  J'lxxon-r ;  and  that  the  most 
minimi  way  of  understanding  the  language  of  John  in  the 
passage  just  noticed,  would  be  as  referring  to  the  supper  com 
monly  so  called.  Not  a  few,  accordingly,  and  these  not  lightly 
learned,  have  maintained,  that  our  Saviour  celebrated  the 
passover  a  day  sooner  than  the  usual  time.  But  this  notion 
whatever  plausibility  it  may  seem  at  first  glance  to  derive  from 
these  passages  and  John  xiii  1,  inasmuch  as  it  is  confirmed 
by  no  other  tolerable  evidence  whatever,  and  is  accompanied 
irith  all  manner  of  difficulty,  ought  not  to  be  deemed  worthy 
of  much  respect.  The  first  day  of  the  Passover  was,  it  is  true, 
a  most  unsuitable  time  for  the  confusion  and  care  of  a  public 
trial  and  execution,  having,  in  a  good  measure,  the  same  holi- 
ness as  the  Sabbath  itself;  but  envy  and  malice  overleap  evcrj 
consideration  of  this  sort;  and  it  was  not  hard  for  Jewish  z<-aJ 
to  forget  all  its  affected  rigour,  when  an  opportunity  was  found 
to  destroy  the  hated  Prophet  of  Galilee. 

Ou  the  second  day  of  the  Passover,  or  the  morrow  after  the 
Sabltath,  (as  its  first  day  was  called,)  a  sheaf  of  barley  wa? 
waved  before  the  Lord,  as  an  offering  of  the  first-fruits  of  the 
harvest,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  people:  a  ceremony  which 
was  required  to  be  accompanied  with  a  special  sacrifice,  and 
that  was  necessary  to  intrixhice  the  harvest  of  every  year. 
(Lev.  xxiii.  10 — 14.)  On  every  day  of  the  pax-hal  wee!;, 
besides  all  the  peace-offerings  and  other  sacrifices  of  individuals, 
there  were  regular  public  sacrifices  peculiar  to  the  festival, 
over  and  above  the  daily  sacrifice.  (Num.  xxviii.  1(5 — 25.) 

The  Passover,  it  is  plain,  might  begin  on  any  day  of  the 
week,  being  regulated  altogether  by  the  moon.  When  the 
14th  day  of  the  month  happeneu  to  be  the  regular  Sabbath. 
the  great  work  of  killing  the  lambs  was  still  performed  as  it  it 
had  been  a  common  day;  *>r  sanctuary  work  was  held  to  be 
no  profanation,  in  any  case,  of  its  sacred  rest.  In  a  case  of 
this  sort,  however,  it  was  not  allowed  to  carry  the  lambs  home 
till  the  Sabbath  was  over;  the  people  waited  with  them  in  the 
courts  of  the  temple  until  it  gave  place,  toward  dark,  to  the 
second  day  of  the  week.  Presumptuously  to  neglect  the 
passover,  in  its  season,  brought  most  dangerous  guilt  upon  the 
soul ;  but  if  uncleanness  or  other  unavoidable  cause  prevented 
any  one  fr  jm  keeping  it  at  the  proper  time,  he  might  keep  it 
in  the  month  following,  and  be  accepted.  (Num.  ix.  (i — 13.) 

The  sacrifice  of  the  passover  had  a  special  reference  to  the 
death  of  Christ.  This  the  gospel  teaches  us,  when  it  says  in 
the  Scripture,  "A  bone  of  him  shall  not  be  b-oken,"  irhich  wa» 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  381 

so  carefully  concerning  the  paschal  lamb,  had  its  fuU 
filment  when  the  soldiers  brake  nut  the  legs  of  the  Saviour 
upon  the  cross.  (Ex.  xii.  46,  John  xix.  36.)  The  same  thing 
the  Apostle  Paul  teaches,  when  he  expressly  calls  Christ  n,ir 
/itiwuer  sacrificed  for  us,  and  represents  the  happy  condition 
into  which  Christians  are  brought  by  his  death,  as  a  passover 
fi'<ist,  (not  occasional  and  transient  like  those  of  the  Jews,  but 
of  perpetual  continuance,)  which  ought  to  be  kept,  not  with 
"the  leaven  of  malice  and  wickedness,  but  with  the  unleavened 
bread  of  sincerity  and  truth."  (1  Cor.  v.  7,  8.)  The  whole 
transaction  of  the  first  passover  in  Egypt  strikingly  prefigured 
the  saving  efficacy  of  the  Redeemer's  sufferings.  The  sprink- 
ling of  blood  upon  the  door-posts  was  only  a  picture  of  the 
atoning  blood  of  Jesus,  the  Lamb  of  God,  applied  to  the  sin- 
ner's soul :  as  that  was  made  essential  to  deliverance  and  safety, 
when  the  angel  of  destruction  passed  through  the  land;  so 
this  is  needed  to  secure  a  far  greater  redemption,  availing, 
wherever  it  is  found,  to  save  from  hell  itself;  while,  where  it 
is  not  found,  there  can  be  no  escape  from  eternal  wrath;  it  is 
only  "the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,"  that  can 
ever  turn  away  the  sword  of  infinite  justice  from  the  guilty 
spirit,  or  shield  it  from  the  touch  of  harm  when  the  Lord  arises 
to  his  holy  and  terrible  judgment.  (Heb.  xii.  24,  1  Pet.  i.  2.) 
In  every  succeeding  Passover,  there  was  a  memorial  of  this  same 
transaction  in  Egypt ;  and  so,  of  course,  an  ultimate  reference 
to  the  Great  Redemption,  of  which  that  transaction  was  ordered 
to  be  so  expressively  an  image  and  type :  thus,  while  the  in- 
stitution looked  backward,  it  looked  at  the  same  time  yet  more 
significantly  forward,  sh  ring -forth  the  Lord's  death  before 
it  took  place,  as  the  Christian  sacrament  of  the  Supper  has 
been  appointed  to  do  ever  since.  There  was  in  it  not  only  a 
symbolic  prefiguration  of  the  ransom  secured  by  this  death  of 
the  Saviour,  but  a  signal  also  of  all  the  living  benefit  which 
his  people  continually  derive  from  him  by  faith,  in  consequence 
of  his  amazing  sacrifice ;  inasmuch  as  while  the  blood  of  the 
paschal  lamb  was  sprinkled  to  make  atonement,  its  Jlesh  waa 
converted  into  a  solemn  peace-offering  feast,  in  token  of  friendlj 
covenant  with  God,  and  joyful  participation  of  his  grace,  which 
are  secured  only  by  that  believing  reception  of  Christ  which 
he  himself  speaks  of  when  he  says,  "  Except  ye  eat  the  flt-^li 
)f  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  ha\e  no  life  in  yoi  ' 
'John  vi  51—56.) 


882  BIHLICAL 


THE    FEAST   OF   WEEKS. 

The  feast  of  weeks  was  celebrated  at  the  close  of  harvest,  &» 
a  festival  oi'  thanks  for  its  blessings.  It  was  required  to  be 
always  observed  at  the  end  of  seven  weeks  from  the  second 
day  of  the  Passover,  on  which  the  sheaf  of  first-fruits  was  of- 
fered, as  an  introduction  to  the  harvest,  and  lasted  only  for 
one  day.  It  was  because  its  return  was  determined  by  reckon- 
ing a  week  of  weeks  in  this  way,  that  it  was  denominated  the. 
feast  of  weeks;  as  it  was  called  also  /'•/,/<  roxf,  or  the  fiftieth 
day,  because  this  reckoning  of  weeks  comprehended,  of  course, 
a  period  of  forty-nine  days.  Aa  it  celebrated  the  goodness  of 
God  in  giving  the  fruits  of  harvest,  (whence  it  was  named 
sometimes  the  feast  of  harvest,)  it  was  distinguished  by  a  first- 
fruit  offering  of  two  loaves  of  the  new  flour,  presented  in  the 
name  of  the  whole  congregation.  This  offering  was  accompa- 
nied with  several  bloody  sacrifices;  and  there  was,  besides,  a 
great  public  offering  of  such  sacrifices  prescribed  for  tin-  ilr.v, 
which  had  no  connection  with  this,  all  over  and  above  the  regu- 
lar daily  service.  (Lev.  xxiii.  15  —  20,  Num.  xxviii.  26  —  31.) 
There  were  at  the  same  time  many  private  free-will  offerings 
presented  on  the  occasion,  and  converted  into  sacred  entertain- 
ments. (Deut.  xvi.  9  —  12.)  During  the  public  sacrifices  that 
have  been  mentioned,  it  was  usual,  the  Jews  tell  us,  to  sing 
over  the  Hallel. 

As  the  Passover  was  instituted  in  commemoration  of  the 
wonderful  night  of  redemption,  in  which  the  Israelites  left 
Egypt,  so  it  has  been  imagined  that  the  Pentecost  was  de- 
signed to  be  a  memorial  of  the  giving  of  the  law  from  Mount 
Sinai,  which  appears  to  have  been  just  about  fifty  days  later. 
Of  such  a  design,  however,  we  have  no  intimation  in  the  Bible. 

The  day  of  Pentecost  has  been  ren  lered  especially  memora- 
ble, in  Christian  history,  by  the  remurkable  event  of  which  we 
have  an  account  in  the  second  chapter  of  Acts.  By  selecting 
such  an  occasion  for  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  his 
disciples,  our  Lord  caused  this  unanswerable  vindication  of  his 
truth  and  power  to  have  the  most  extensive  notoriety;  for 
always,  at  that  time,  there  were  dwelling  at  Jrrmmlrm,  ./'•</•«, 
devout,  men,  out  of  every  nation  under  heaven,  gathered  for  tho 
celebration  of  the  joyful  solemnity. 

THE   FEAST   OF   TABERNACLES. 

The  third  great  annual  festival  prescribed  by  the  law  was 
3alled  the  feast  of  Tabernacles;  because,  during  its  solemnity, 
the  people  were  required  to  dwell  in  booths,  or  teraporarj 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  383 

habitations,  constructed  of  the  boughs  of  trees,  such  as  were 
made  use  of  in  the  journey  through  the  wilderness,  in  memory 
of  which  it  was  appointed  to  be  kept.  It  was  celebrated  from 
the  15th  to  the  23d  of  the  seventh  month,  Tishri,  with  which 
the  civil  year  had  its  commencement;  the  first  and  the  last, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Passover,  being  considered  more  particu 
larly  sacred  and  important.  Besides  the  design  just  noticed, 
viz.  to  be  a  memorial  of  the  journey  through  the  wilderness, 
its  appointment  had  respect  to  the  season  of  vintage  and  ga- 
thering of  fruits,  at  the  close  of  which  it  was  observed  ;  so  that 
it  was  intended  at  the  same  time  to  be  a  festival  of  thanks  for 
these,  or  rather  for  all  the  produce  of  the  year  now  gathered 
from  the  field,  as  the  feast  of  weeks  was  for  harvest,  which  is 
spoken  of  as  the  first-fruits  of  all.  Hence  it  is  called  thef'-u*t 
•if  ingathering.  (Ex.  xxiii.  16,  Lev.  xxiii.  34 — 44,  Neh.  viii. 
14—18.) 

A  great  number  of  public  sacrifices  were  required  to  be  of- 
fered  during  this  festival ;  an  account  of  which  may  be  found 
in  Num.  xxix.  12 — 38.  The  season  was  also  distinguished, 
as  the  other  great  festivals  were,  with  private  peace-offerings 
of  various  sorts,  in  daily  abundance.  (Deut.  xvi.  13 — 15.) 

Under  the  second  temple,  certain  peculiar  ceremonies  were 
introduced  into  the  celebration  of  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  in 
addition  to  those  that  belonged  to  it,  originally,  by  Divine  ap- 
pointment. The  Jews  pretend,  indeed,  that  intimations  of 
their  use,  before  the  captivity,  are  found  in  the  Old  Testament; 
but  what  they  show  for  such  have  no  appearance  of  the  sort, 
except  by  fanciful  interpretation.  Such  were  these  that  follow. 

1.  In  the  law  it  was  commanded — "  Ye  shall  take  you,  on 
the  first  day,  the  boughs  of  goodly  trees,  branches  of  palm 
trees,  and  the  boughs  of  thick  trees,  and  willows  of  the  brook ; 
and  ye  shall  rejoice  before  the  Lord  your  God  seven  days.'* 
(Lev.  xxiii.  40.)  These  boughs,  the  Sadducees  rightly  main- 
tained, were  designed  to  be  employed  in  making  booths ;  but 
the  Pharisees  insisted  they  were  designed  to  be  carried  by 
every  individual,  in  his  hand,  in  token  of  joy;  and  they  far- 
ther asserted,  that,  by  the  expression  translated,  the  bonyhs  of 
goodly  trees,  'which  means,  literally,  the  fruit  of;/'**////  trtes^ 
was  to  be  understood  nothing  else  than  apples  of  the  citron 
tree,  which,  accordingly,  were  appointed  to  be  carried  in  the 
same  manner.  This  was  established,  therefore,  as  the  common 
usage.  On  the  first  day  of  the  feast,  every  person  provided 
himself  with  a  small  bunch  of  branches  of  palm  and  willow 
»nd  myrtle,  ^nd  was  seen  carrying  it  about,  wherever  he  went, 
all  the  day  long  On  the  foll»  wing  days  it  was  not  thus  coo- 


884  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

stantly  carried,  but  only  when  individuals  went  up  to  the  tem- 
ple :  each  day,  however,  all  were  required  to  visit  the  temple, 
with  their  bunches  in  their  right  hands,  and  every  one  a  citron 
in  his  left,  and  thus  pass  around  the  altar,  crying  aloud.  //<>- 
gnu  mi,  (which  means,  save  now!)  and  repeating  also  the  whole 
LJoth  verse  of  Psalm  cxviii.,  while  all  the  time  the  sacred  trum- 
pets were  sounding  without  restraint.  On  the  seventh  day 
this  ceremony  was  repeated  seven  times,  in  memory  of  the  con- 
quest of  Jericho. 

2.  There  was  a  still  more  remarkable  rite,  which  consisted 
in  the  drawhiy  of  water,  ami  x»/i  nm/i/  y/o// /•//«/  It  out  UJ#>H  tltt 
altar.     Every  morning,  during  the  feast,  when  the  parts  of  the 
morning  sacrifice  were  laid  upon  the  altar,  one  of  the  priests 
went  to  the  fountain  of  Siloam,  and  filled  a  golden  vessel, 
which  he  carried  in  his  hand,  with  its  water.     This  he  then 
brought  into  the  court,  and,  having  first  mingled  it  with  s-iim.- 
wine,  poured  it  out,  as  a  drink-offering,  on  the  top  of  the  altar. 
And  still,  as  this  ceremony  was  performed  each  day,  the  Le- 
vites  began  their  music,  and  sung  over  the  Hallel ;  while  at 
times,  especially  when  the  118th  Psalm  was  sung,  the  people 
all  shook  the  branches  which  they  held  in  their  hands,  to  ex- 
press the  warm   assent  of  their  feelings  to  the   sentiments 
breathed  in  the  sacred  hymn.     The  meaning  of  the  ceremony 
is  not  clear :  some  of  those  who  mention  it,  say  it  was  signifi- 
cant of  the  blessing  of  rain,  which  was  thus  invoked  from  <  J<><1 ; 
others  tell  us,  it  was  a  sign  merely  of  the  jot/  that  belonged  to 
the  occasion ;  others,  that  it  was  a  symbol  of  the  outpouring 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  according  to  what  is  said  in  Isa.   xii.   i>, 
"  With  joy  shall  ye  draw  water  out  of  the  wells  of  salvation," 
which,  it  is  pretended,  was  spoken  in  allusion  to  the  usage  in 
question,  and  so  evinces,  at  once,  its  antiquity  and  its  sense. 

3.  Every  night,  we  are  told,  there  was  a  most  extraordinary 
exhibition  of  joy,  styled  the  rejoicimj  for  the  dnncimj  of  imti  /•. 
When  the  water  was  offered,  in  the  morning,  the  solemnity  of 
the  worship  then  on  hand  would  not  admit  the  extravagance 
of  this  ceremony ;  so  it  was  put  off  till  all  the  service  of  the 
day  was  over,  when  it  began,  without  moderation,  and  occupied 
quite  a  considerable  portion  of  the  night.     The  scene  of  it  was 
the  Court  of  the  Women,  which,  for  the  occasion,  was  furnishrd 
with  great  lights,  mounted  upon  four  huge  candlesticks  that 
overtopped  all  the  surrounding  walls  in  height.     Here,  while 
the  women  occupied  the  balconies  round  about,  above,  as  spec- 
tators, the  Levites,  taking  their  station  on  the  steps  that  led 
up  into  the  Court  of  Israel,  at  the  west  end,  began  to  unite 
their  instruments  and  voices,  in  loud   music,  and  a  general 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  S8£ 

.lance  was  started  all  over  the  square.  It  was,  withal,  a  wild 
and  tumultuous  dance,  without  order,  dignity,  or  grace;  every 
one  brandishing  in  his  hand  u  flaming  torch,  leaping  and  ca- 
pering with  all  his  might,  and  measuring  the  worthiness  of  his 
service  by  its  extravagance  and  excess.  What  made  the  ex- 
hibition still  more  extraordinary  in  its  appearance,  was  the 
high  and  grave  character  of  the  persons  that  were  accustomed 
to  engage  in  it;  for  it  was  not  the  common  people  that  joined 
in  this  dance,  but  only  those  that  were  of  some  rank  and  im- 
portance, such  as  the  members  of  the  Sanhedrim,  rulers  of  the 
synagogues,  doctors  of  the  law,  &c.  It  was  not  until  the  night 
was  far  spent,  that  the  strange  confusion  came  to  an  end ;  and 
then  only  to  be  renewed  with  like  extravagance  on  the  next 
evening,  (unless  when  it  was  particularly  holy,  as  the  eve  that 
began  the  Sabbath,)  as  long  as  the  feast  lasted.  //'-  that  ni-vnr 
xuw  the  rejoicing  of  tlu-  drntrinij  of  water,  runs  a  Jewish  «uy- 
ing,  never  saw  r<j»i<  imj  hi  «tl  /t/'.s  life. 

Some  have  thought,  that  the  whole  manner  in  which  our 
Saviour  was  met,  the  last  time  he  came  up  to  Jerusalem,  was 
borrowed  from  the  usage,  that  has  been  noticed,  of  carrying 
branches  in  the  hand,  and  shouting  Hoxanna,  in  the  temple, 
on  the  feast  of  tabernacles ;  and  that  the  use  of  the  ceremony, 
at  this  time,  was  designed  to  intimate,  that  what  the  prayer  in 
Psalm  cxviii.  25,  then  so  much  used,  had  respect  to,  viz.  the 
Doming  of  the  Messiah,  was  now  truly  accomplished;  and  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  no  other  than  this  glorious  personage, 
the  Son  of  David,  the  Redeemer  of  Israel,  that  should  come 
into  the  world  :  whence  it  was  cried,  at  the  same  time,  in  the 
language  that  begins  the  next  verse  of  the  same  Psalm — 
"  Blessed  is  he  that  coiueth  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  !"  (Matt. 
xxi.  8,  9,  15,  John  xii.  12,  13.)  The  use  of  palm  branches 
on  this  occasion,  as  well  as  all  the  show  of  honour  that  was 
made,  seems  rather  to  have  been  taken  from  the  general  an- 
cient manner  of  celebrating  triumphs,  or  public  entries  of 
kings  into  cities;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  minds  of 
the  people  were  carried,  at  the  same  time,  by  natural  associa- 
tion, to  the  usage,  so  familiar,  of  their  great  feast,  and  that  their 
acclamations,  accordingly,  were  really  derived  from  that  quarter. 
A  reference  to  the  ceremony  of  drawing  and  pouring  out  water 
also,  is  discovered  in  the  gospel  history  :  our  Lord,  it  seems  evi- 
dent, had  allusion  to  it,  when,  on  the  last  day  of  the  feast,  he 
istood  in  the  temple,  and  cried,  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him 
come  unto  me  and  drink !  He  that  believeth  on  me,  as  the 
Scripture  hath  said,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living 
water."  It  was  in  this  way,  he  was  continually  in  the  habit  of 

83 


386  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIKB. 

taking  advantage  of  earthly  objects  and  circumstances  wound 
him,  to  draw  attention  to  .spiritual  truths,  and  to  convey  the 
most  salutary  instruction  in  a  clear  and  impressive  manner;  in 
the  case  beforo  us,  we  are  told,  <;  that  he  spake  of  the  Spirit, 
which  they  that  believe  on  him  should  receive."  'John  vii.  37 
—39.) 


SECTION    V. 
THE   GREAT   DAY   OF   ATONEMENT. 

THERE  was  no  day  in  all  the  year  so  important  and  solemn, 
in  the  Ceremonial  System,  a.-  the  10th  of  Tishri,  which  fell, 
of  course,  not  quite  a  week  before  the  feast  of  tabernacles. 
This  was  the  Day  of  Atonement,  when  guilt  was  called  to  re- 
membrance in  such  a  way  as  it  was  at  no  other  time,  and  a 
service  of  expiation  performed  in  behalf  of  the  whole  nation, 
altogether  extraordinary  and  peculiar.  It  was  required  to  be 
observed,  therefore,  not  merely  as  a  Sabbath  of  complete  rest, 
but  as  a  day  of  rigid  fasting  also,  and  general  humiliation  or 
affliction  »f  s/>iil,  on  account  of  sin.  The  atonement  that  wa>- 
made  had  respect  to  all  the  sins  of  all  the  people,  from  the  high- 
est to  the  lowest,  committed  throughout  the  preceding  year: 
and  was  des  gned  to  clear  away,  as  it  were,  by  one  general  ex- 
piation, the  vast  array  of  guilt  that  was  still  left,  after  all  the 
ordinary  offerings  for  sin,  resting  with  awful  weight  upon  the 
nation.  It  comprehended  in  itself,  in  fact,  the  vitality  and 
chief  essence  of  the  whole  system  of  ceremonial  expiation, 
and  required  for  its  accomplishment,  accordingly,  the  service 
of  the  high-priest  himself,  in  whom  was  concentrated  the  vir- 
tue of  the  entire  priesthood,  and  an  entrance  with  blood  int.i 
the  Holy  of  Holies,  where  all  the  life  and  glory  of  the  Sanc- 
tuary were  appointed  to  reside. 

We  have  a  full  account  of  the  manner  of  this  atonement  in 
the  16th  chapter  of  Leviticus.  We  are  there  told  how  the 
high-priest  was  required  to  make  himself  ready,  by  wa>hin^. 
and  putting  on  his  plain  linen  garments,  in  place  of  the  rieliei 
apparel  he  usually  wore ;  how  he  came  before  the  Sanctuary 
with  a  bullock,  as  a  sin-offering  for  himself  and  his  family, 
and  two  goats  for  the  whole  congregation;  how  he  selected  «.ne 
of  the  goats  by  lot,  for  a  sin-offering,  and  sot  apart  rlie  other 
for  a  scape-goat  into  the  wilderness;  how  he  killed  the  bullock 
for  himself,  and  afterwards  'lie  goat  for  the  poople;  how  h.- 
first  earriod  a  center  of  coals,  with  some  incense,  into  the  M<  w 


BIBLICA  J    ANTIQUITIES.  3S7 

Holj  P\a/*e,  and  there  cau  jed  a  fragrant  cloud  instantly  to  spread 
over  the  morcy-seat,  and  fill  the  apartment;  how  he  then  brought 
the  blood  of  the  bullock  and  the  blood  of  the  goat  into  the 
same  awful  place,  and  sprinkled  them  upon  the  mercy—  a  , 
and  seven  times  upon  the  floor  in  front  of  it;  how,  when  he 
came  out  into  rhe  Holy  Place,  he  applied  them  also  to  the  horns 
of  the  golden  altar,  and  sprinkled  them  upon  it  seven  times; 
how  he  afterwards  placed  his  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  liv- 
ing goat,  confessed  over  it  all  the  iniquities  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  and  all  their  transgressions  in  all  their  sins,  and  then 
sent  it  away,  thus  loaded,  as  it  were,  with  the  people's  guilt, 
into  the  wilderness;  and  how,  after  all  was  over,  he  again 
wa-hnl  himself  in  the  Holy  Place,  put  on  his  splendid  dress, 
and  offered  a  burnt-offering  for  himself  and  for  the  people, 
while  the  whole  bodies  of  the  bullock  and  the  goat,  whose 
blood  had  been  carried  into  the  Sanctuary,  were  sent  away  to 
oe  burned  without  the  camp,  as  altogether  polluted  and  un- 
clean. 

It  was  an  awful  thing  to  come  before  the  throne  of  God  as 
the  high-priest  did  this  day;  and  no  doubt  the  duty  was  often 
performed  with  fear  and  trembling.  The  greatest  care  was 
needful  to  attend  to  every  part  of  the  service  in  a  proper  man- 
ner, and  with  becoming  reverence,  lest  the  anger  of  the  Lord 
should  suddenly  display  itself,  to  crush  him  with  destruction. 
It  was  necessary  that  he  should  be  free,  at  the  time,  from 
every  sort  of  ceremonial  defilement ;  and  it  became  his  duty, 
accordingly,  to  guard  himself  with  the  utmost  diligence,  from 
every  kind  of  contamination,  for  some  time  beforehand.  In 
later  times,  if  the  Jews  are  to  be  believed,  he  used  to  retire  from 
his  own  house  a  whole  week  before  the  solemnity,  taking  up 
his  residence  for  that  time,  altogether  in  a  chamber  of  the  tem- 
ple, that  he  might  the  better  be  in  readiness  for  his  great  duty; 
fbr  which  he  was  accustomed  to  prepare  himself  by  practice, 
in  various  ways,  and  by  reading  over,  or  having  read  to  him, 
repeatedly,  the  order  and  manner  of  the  service  he  would  have 
to  go  through. 

In  the  law,  it  is  said,  that  the  scape-goat  should  be  let  go  in 
the  vrildi'riH'ss,  to  carry  clear  away,  as  it  were,  the  iniquity  that 
was  laid  upon  it,  and  it  would  seem  that  it  was  always  allowed 
.[>e  with  life;  but  under  the  second  temple,  a  different  in- 
terpretation of  the  direction  gained  place,  and  it  came  to  be 
li'-M  f-i-i'-ntial  that  the  animal  should  be  destroyed.  This  was 
always  done,  accordingly,  by  precipitating  it  from  a  certain  rack, 
about  twelve  miles  off  from  Jerusalem,  to  which  it  was  led 
away  directly  from  the  temple.  The  rock  was  very  lofty  and 


f8S  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

steep,  so  that  when  the  unhappy  beast  caine  to  the  bottom,  it 
was  dashed  to  pieces. 

There  were  particular  public  sacrifices  prescribed  for  the  dav 
of  atonement,  besides  those  that  were  connected  with  the  great 
expiation.  (Num.  xxix.  8 — 11.)  These,  the  Jews  say.  were 
offered  directly  after  the  regular  morning  sacrifice,  before  that 
solemn  service  commenced.  They  tell  us,  too,  that  no  one  but 
the  high-priust  might  do  any  of  the  prie.-tly  work  that  belonged 
to  these  or  to  any  other  offerings  of  this  day  ;  but  that  he  was 
required  to  perform  himself,  in  his  rich  dress,  all  the  morning 
service,  and  all  that  was  connected  wi:h  these  additional  offer- 
ings; then  to  change  his  garment?*,  and  go  through  the  work 
of  atonement ;  and  afterwards,  in  his  common  apparel  again, 
having  first  offered  the  two  burnt-offering  rams,  one  for  him- 
self and  the  other  for  the  people,  to  conclude  all  with  the 
duties  of  the  evening  sacrifice. 

The  great  aim  mil  uttmement,  embodying  in  itself,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  essential  virtue  of  the  whole  Jewish  system  of 
expiatory  sacrifices,  was,  of  course,  the  most  perfect  picture 
which  the  ceremonial  dispensation  had,  of  the  (rue  Atom  m-  ni 
that  was  afterwards  to  appear.  The  whole  institution  of  sa- 
crifice was  a  shadowy  representation  of  the  Redeemer's  death, 
and  the  whole  priestly  service  had  respect  to  his  mediatorial 
work ;  they  presented,  in  common  cases,  however,  only  some 
particular  features  of  these  mysteries  in  any  single  view,  with- 
out bringing  the  scattered  sketches  at  any  time  together,  or 
supplying,  even  in  this  separate  way,  all  that  were  wanting 
for  filling  up  the  general  representation.  But,  in  the  BMH 
before  us,  there  was,  as  it  were,  an  orderly  and  complete  con- 
centration of  typical  images,  into  a  single,  full,  and  striking 
exhibition  of  the  whole  at  once;  such  as,  the  more  narrowly 
it  is  contemplated,  cannot  fail  to  excite  the  higher  admiration, 
and  to  display  the  more  convincingly,  in  all  i<s  colouring,  the 
inimitable  touches  of  a  divine  pencil. 

Here  was  a  symbolic  representation  of  Christ's  voluntary 
iK-riJice  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  of  his  all -pre  vail  ing  iittrr- 
caxion  in  the  presence  of  the  Father,  by  which  his  people  arc 
made  partakers  of  righteousness  and  eternal  life.  The  Mo«( 
Holy  Place  was  a  figure  of  heaven,  where  God  dwells  in  etern  J 
glory.  As  the  high-priest  entered  in*o  the  one  to  intercede 
^ith  incense  for  the  Israelitish  nation,  so  Jesus  has  ascended  into 
the  other  to  intercede  for  the  whole  congregation  of  his  church, 
gathered  out  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world.  Hut  as  the  inter- 
i-ev-ion,  in  the  first  case,  could  not  be  admitted,  except  as  it 
come  recommended  by  blood  of  expiation,  previously  sh-sd,  »o, 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  38*> 

also,  without  shedding  of  blood,  there  could  be  no  such  inter- 
cession of  any  avail,  in  the  second ;  wherefore,  our  Loru  appear- 
ed not  before  the  infinite  Majesty  on  high,  tor  this  purpose,  till 
he  had  first  offered  an  adequate  sacrifice,  on  the  merit  of  which 
he  might  found  his  mediation.  He  gave  his  blood  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins,  and  then  presented  himself  in  the  presence  of 
Uml,  with  the  atonement  as  it  were  in  his  hands,  to  make  re- 
conciliation with  it  for  guilt,  and  to  plead  its  virtue  in  favour  of 
all  who  apply  to  him  for  life.  In  the  typical  transaction,  there 
trafi  not,  indeed,  an  entire  correspondence  throughout  with  the 
mystery  it  represented :  it  was  not  possible,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  that  it  should  be  so.  Thus,  in  the  type,  the  high-priesi 
and  the  victim  were  altogether  distinct,  whil  in  the  true  trans- 
action they  were  found  in  one  and  the  same  person;  Christ 
was  himself  the  sacrifice  and  the  priest :  he  <>ff<'reA  himself,  of 
his  own  accord,  as  a  victim  for  sin,  (as  he  says  in  Johu  x.  17, 18, 
and  in  that  plea  of  his  prayer  for  his  disciples,  "  For  their  sakea 
/  xuiictify  myself;")  OMWredL  in  his  own  person,  all  the  suffering 
of  an  expiatory  death  ;  and  then  passed,  in  the  power  of  an  all- 
sufficient  High-Priest,  into  the  Holy  of  Holies  on  high,  to 
sprinkle  the  mercy-seat,  as  it  were,  with  his  own  blood,  and 
obtain  eternal  redemption  for  his  church.  In  the  type,  more- 
over, there  was,  besides  the  offering  for  the  people,  a  separate 
sacrifice  for  the  high-priest  and  his  family,  inasmuch  as  he 
himself  was  encumbered  with  personal  guilt,  and  needed  atone- 
ment for  his  own  sins,  before  he  could  come  acceptably  before 
God,  to  make  intercession  for  the  people :  but  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  was  single,  and  had  respect  altogether  to  the  sins  of 
his  people — he  himself  being  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  and 
separate  from  sinners.  In  the  type,  at  the  same  time,  besides 
the  sin-offering  sacrifice,  there  was  a  scape-goat  appointed  to 
bear  away,  symbolically,  the  sins  of  the  nation ;  both  these 
figures,  however,  were  answered  at  once  in  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ.  They  presented  only  two  different  aspects  of  the  gene- 
ral nature  of  the  atonement  it  accomplished ;  the  one  shadow- 
ing the  transaction  itself  and  its  influence  in  heaven ;  while 
the  other  expressed,  in  significant  emblem,  its  full  efficacy  to 
purge  the  conscience  from  all  guilt,  and  to  remove  the  trans- 
us  of  all  that  make  application  for  its  benefit,  so  that 
they  shall  not  }JG  remembered  in  the  way  of  judgment  any  more 
for  ever.  The  apostle  Paul  dwells  upon  this  subject  in  his 
epistle  to  the  Hebrews ;  representing  the  whole  priestly  office 
and  the  whole  sacrificial  system  as  typical  of  the  mystery  of 
redemption,  but  more  particularly  directing  attention  to  the 
gn  ;it  service  of  the  high-priest  on  the  day  of  atonement,  a* 


390  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

that  which  comprehended  in  itself,  more  especially;  ii.  ..«* 
perfect  and  expressive  image.  "Christ  being  come,"  L^  ujlis 
us,  "a  High-Priest  of  good  things  to  come,  by  a  greater  and 
more  perfect  tabernacle,  not  made  with  hands,  that  is  to  say, 
not  of  this  building  ;  neither  by  the  blood  of  goats  and  calves 
but  by  his  own  blood,  he  entered  in  once  into  the  holy  place, 
having  obtained  eternal  redemption  tor  us.  For  Christ,"  he 
adds  in  another  place,  "  is  not  entered  into  the  holy  places  made 
with  hands,  which  are  the  figures  of  the  true  ;  but  into  heaven 
itself,  now  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us  :  nor  yd 
that  he  should  offer  himself  often,  as  the  high-priest  etiterrth 
into  the  holy  place  every  year  with  blood  of  others;  for  the  i 
must  he  often  have  suffered  since  the  foundation  of  the  world  : 
but  now  once,  in  the  end  of  the  world,  hath  he  appeared,  to 
put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifiW  of  himself."  (Heb.  ix.  11,  1'2, 
24—260 


SECTION    VI. 
SACRED   YtARS. 

THE  SABBATIC  YEAR.  Still  more  to  impress  the  minds  of 
his  people  with  the  great  truth,  that  their  time,  as  well  as 
their  property,  was  not  their  own ;  and  to  carry  out  still  more 
completely  the  ceremonial  scheme,  God  set  apart  every  seventh 
year,  also,  in  addition  to  the  days  that  have  been  already 
noticed,  to  be,  in  some  measure,  sacred  and  free  from  the 
labours  of  other  years.  It  was  not  required,  indeed,  that  it 
should  be  all  kept  after  the  manner  of  a  Sabbath,  or  solemn 
festival,  by  a  continual  attendance  upon  religious  duties.  We 
hear  of  no  extraordinary  public  sacrifices  appointed  for  it,  and 
the  people  seem  to  have  been  left  to  occupy  the  time  in  a 
worldly  or  religious  way,  according  to  their  own  choice,  about 
as  much  as  in  ordinary  years.  The  land,  however,  enjoyed  a 
complete  rest :  the  fields  were  not  allowed  to  be  tilled,  nor  the 
vineyards  to  be  dressed ;  and  whatever  they  yielded  without 
culture,  was  required  to  be  regarded  as  conmon,  for  all  to 
make  use  of  as  they  needed,  without  being  reaped  or  gathered. 
^l^ev.  xxv.  2 — 7,  Ex.  xxiii.  11.)  The  inquiry  might  naturally 
BUggest  itself,  how  the  nation  could  be  secure  from  the  distress 
of  poverty  and  famine,  in  the  observance  of  such  an  institution  ; 
but  God  himself  silenced  fear  on  this  account :  "  If  ye  shall 
say,  What  shall  we  eat  the  seventh  year  ?  behold,  we  shall  not 
aow,  noi  gather  in  our  increase :  Then  T  will  command  uiy 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  39l 

.>s»ing  upon  you  in  the  sixth  year,  and  it  shall  bring  forth 
fruit  for  three  years.  And  ye  shall  sow  the  eighth  year,  and 
eat  yet  of  old  fruit,  until  the  ninth  year."  (L<:v.  xxv.  20 — 2:2.) 
As  ao  produce  was  gathered  from  the  soil,  it  was  made  a  law, 
also,  that  no  debts  should  be  collected  during  the  Sabbat ica! 
year;  and  it  was,  at  the  same  timo,  solemnly  enjoined,  that 
no  person  should  be  moved  by  this  consideration,  to  refuse 
lending  to  such  aa  were  in  want,  when  it  was  at.  li.-.inl.  The 
year  was  called,  on  this  account,  the  year  of  release.  S^ine 
have  entertained  the  opinion,  that  this  release  required  uot 
merely,  that  debts  should  be  allowed  to  lie  over,  without  being 
exacted,  till  the  eighth  year,  but  that  they  should  be  alto- 
gether canceled  and  never  again  called  for:  which,  however, 
as  it  seems  not  easy  in  itself  to  be  received,  so  it  cannot  be 
positively  established  from  the  language  of  the  law.  (Deut. 
xv.  1 — 11.)  The  Sabbatical  year,  we  must  believe,  had  its 
beginning  with  Tishri,  the  first  month  of  the  civil  year,  when 
the  produce  of  the  land  was  all  gathered  in,  and  before  the 
time  of  sowing  for  another  crop. 

During  the  feast  of  tabernacles  this  year,  the  whole  law  was 
to  be  publicly  read  over  at  the  Sanctuary.  How  important 
such  a  regulation  was,  when  copies  of  the  sacred  writings  were, 
of  necessity,  extremely  scarce,  needs  not  to  be  observed.  (Deut. 
xxxi.  10—13.) 

THE  YEAR  OF  JUBILEE.  There  was  another  year  of  peculiar 
and  extraordinary  character,  appointed  to  be  observed,  in  the 
Jewish  economy.  Its  return  was  still  at  the  end  of  every 
seventh  sabbatical  year,  that  is,  only  once  in  50  years.  The 
law  directed  that  it  should  commence  on  the  great,  day  of 
atonement,  and  that  it  should  then  be  ushered  in  with  the 
sounding  of  trumpets,  through  all  the  laud. 

This  Year  of  Julti  !<•<•,  as  it  was  called,  was  to  be,  in  all  re- 
spects, as  much  as  the  common  sabbatical  years,  a  year  of  rest 
to  the  land,  in  which  there  might  be  neither  seed-time,  har- 
vest, or  vintage.  It  enjoyed,  however,  additional  distinctions, 
exclusively  its  own.  It  was  a  year  of  reslitutinn.  when  tho 
whole  state  of  society  was  to  be,  in  some  measure,  re-organized, 
and  brought  back,  as  far  as  possible,  to  its  original  posture. 
It  was  ordained,  that  on  even"  return  of  the  Jubilee,  all  ser- 
vants of  Hebrew  origin  should  obtain  their  freedom  ;  and  that 
inheritances,  which  had  been  sold  or  given  up,  in  the  way  of 
mortgage  or  pledge  for  debts,  and  not  previously  redeemed, 
should  return,  all  over  the  land,  to  the  families  to  which  they 
at  first  belonged.  A  particular  account  of  these  regulations, 
»nd  of  the  manner  in  which  they  were  to  be  understood  and 


392  BIBLICAL    AHTIQUITIE8. 

regarded,  as  well  as  of  the  institution  of  the  year  of  Jubilee  in 
general,  is  found  in  the  25th  chapter  of  Leviticus. 

We  may  well  conceive,  that  the  return  of  the  Jubilee  would 
be  hailed  through  the  land,  not  merely  with  the  sound  of 
trumpets,  but  with  much  gladness  of  heart  and  general  mani- 
festation of  joy.  It  commenced,  we  may  suppose,  on  tho 
evening  of  the  day  of  atonement,  after  its  great  solemnities 
were  over;  and  so  brought  with  it,  as  it  were,  a  proclamation 
of  peace  and  forgiveness,  in  answer  to  the  deep  humiliation,  and 
ihe  expiation  so  awful,  with  which  the  season  had  been  dis- 
tinguished. And  truly,  an  interesting  spectacle  it  must  have 
beofl,  and  such  as  might  well  excite  the  most  pleasant  emotions, 
even  in  those  who  had  no  direct  personal  concern  in  the  privi- 
leg«  s  of  the  time,  to  behold  the  gladsome  change  that  was  all  at 
once  accomplished  throughout  the  nation ;  when  the  bond  and 
the  poor  found  themselves  restored  to  freedom  and  a  home ; 
ivlien  the  unfortunate  were  raised  from  distress,  and  brought 
back,  each  to  his  ancient  patrimony  and  the  dwelling-place  <>r' 
his  fathers;  when  the  obscure  were  seen  suddenly  rising  into 
notice  and  importance;  and  when  the  whole  face  of  the  com- 
munity, in  short,  was  moulded  by  an  almost  instantaneous 
transformation  into  something  of  the  same  general  semblance 
of  order  and  arrangement  that  it  carried  fifty  years  before. 
The  whole  formed  a  lively  emblem  of  the  joyful  blessings, 
holy  and  spiritual,  that  are  brought  to  men  by  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  wheiever  it  is  received  by  faith ;  and  hence, 
accordingly,  it  is  said  of  the  .Messiah  in  prophecy,  with  alliiM-  n 
to  the  proclamation  of  the  Jubilee,  that  he  should  come  to 
preach  or  prodnim  the  acceptable  y^ar  of  the  Lord.  (Isa.  Ixi.  '2, 
Luke  iv.  19.) 


SECTION  VII. 
SACLEB    SEASONS    OF   HUMAN    INSTITUTION. 

Tc  the  sacreJ  times  which  God  himself  appointed  in  the 
law,  to  be  remembered  and  observed  by  his  people,  there  were 
added,  in  later  ages,  some  others,  that  rested,  so  far  as  we  know 
any  thing  about  them,  on  mere  human  authority.  These 
remain  to  be  briefly  noticed. 

ANNUAL  FAST-DAYS.  From  the  beginning,  the  Jewish 
nation  was  accustomed  to  observe  public  fas.ts  on  occasion* 
of  general  calamity  or  danger;  yet  they  had  not,  in  the  earlier 
periods  of  their  history,  any  stated  yearly  day  foi  fasting,  nx 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  393 

the  great  day  of  atonement,  that  has  been  already  con- 
sidered. During  the  captivity,  however,  no  less  than  four 
additional  days  of  this  sort  were  established,  whicli  continued 
to  be  observed  in  all  subsequent  times.  These  were,  first,  The 
fast  of  the  fourth  month,  in  memory  of  the  capture  of  Jeru- 
salem. (Jer.  lii.  6,  7.)  Second,  The  fast  of  the  fifth  month, 
in  memory  of  the  burning  of  the  temple.  (Jer.  lii.  12,  18.1 
Third,  The  fast  of  the  seventh  month,  in  memory  of  the  death 
of  Gedaliah.  (Jer.  xli.  1 — 4.)  Fourth,  The  fast  of  the  tenth 
month,  in  memory  of  the  commencement  of  the  attack  upon 
Jerusalem.  (Jer.  lii.  4.)  Mention  is  made  of  all  these  in  the 
book  of  Zechariah,  vii.  3,  5,  viii.  19. 

THE  FEAST  OF  PURIM.  This  festival,  as  we  have  the  account 
of  its  origin  in  Esther  ix.  17 — 32,  was  instituted  to  keep  up 
the  memory  of  that  great  deliverance  which  the  Jews  had  frum 
the  wicked  plot  of  Hainan,  in  the  days  of  Mordecai  and  Esther. 
It  was  celebrated  about  the  middle  of  Adar,  the  twelfth,  and 
regularly,  the  last  month  of  the  year,  and  had  its  name  from 
the  word  Pur,  which  means  a  lot,  because  Haman  had  made 
use  of  the  lot,  in  some  way  of  idolatrous  superstition,  to  de- 
termine the  time  when  the  massacre  of  the  Jewish  nation 
might  be  undertaken  with  the  best  success.  (Esth.  iii.  6,  7.) 
Two  days,  viz.  the  14th  and  15th  of  the  month,  were  set  apart 
to  be  observed ;  though  it  was  usual  to  confine  the  principal 
celebration  to  the  first,  while  it  became  the  practice  to  keep  a 
preparatory  fast  on  the  13th,  in  memory  of  that  in  Shushan, 
on  account  of  the  decree  that  had  gone  forth  for  the  destruction 
of  the  nation.  The  manner  of  celebrating  this  festival  became, 
in  time,  very  extravagant  and  licentious,  and  so  it  has  con- 
tinued to  be  down  to  this  day.  A  principal  service  has  been, 
to  read  over  all  the  book  of  Esther,  in  the  synagogues,  and  for 
all  present,  even  the  children,  at  every  mention  of  the  name 
of  Haman,  to  clap  with  their  hands,  and  stamp  with  their  feet, 
and  strike  with  mallets  upon  the  benches,  in  token  of  deep  ab- 
horrence, crying  out  at  the  same  time,  Let  his  memory  penAt 
The  part  of  the  time  that  is  not  required  to  be  spent  in  the 
synagogue  is  occupied  with  all  manner  of  festivity  and  mirth; 
whicli  it  has  not  been  unusual  to  carry  to  a  length  not  meivly 
of  ridiculous  folly,  but  of  downright  intemperance,  indecency, 
and  outrageous  revelry. 

THE  FEAST  OF  DEDICATION.  This  feast  was  instituted  by 
Judas  Maccabeus,  ujt  more  than  164  years  before  Christ,  to  l>c 
A  memorial  of  the  new  dedication  of  the  Sanctuary,  tha*  'lu'ii 
took  place,  after  it  had  been  profaned  by  that  wicked  watch 
Autiocbus  Epiphanes  This  monarch  had  get  himself,  wit.lj 


8!>4  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

all  his  might,  to  crush  the  Jewish  religion,  and  introduce  ido'* 
try  in  its  room.  He  ordered  the  service  of  tie  temple  u 
cease ;  Sabbaths  and  festivals  to  be  entirely  neglected  ;  altars, 
groves,  and  chapels  of  idols  to  be  set  up  through  the  land  ; 
sacrifices  of  swine  and  other  unclean  beasts  to  be  offered,  and 
incense  to  be  burned  at  the  doors  of  houses  and  in  the  streets ; 
the  whole  law,  in  short,  to  be  disregarded,  and  the  whol« 
Sanctuary  polluted  ;  thus  requiring  the  people  to  "  make  their 
souls  abominable,  with  all  manner  of  iincleanness  and  profana- 
tion, to  the  end  they  might  forget  the  law,  and  change  all  the 
ordinances."  The  Bible  was  hunted  with  diabolical  persecu- 
tion, to  be  torn  in  pieces  and  burned;  and  it  was  made  an  aw 
ful  law,  that  whosoever  was  found  with  the  sacred  volume  in 
his  possession  should  be  put  to  death.  Among  other  things, 
the  tyrant  himself  "  entered  proud  i/  into  the  Sanctuary,  and 
took  away  the  golden  altar,  and  the  candlestick  of  light,  and 
nil  the  vessels  thereof,  and  the  table  of  .-he\v-liread,"  with  every 
precious  vessel  of  the  place,  and  carried  them  off  into  his  own 
land ;  and  afterwards  he  proceeded  so  far  in  his  malice  and 
profanity  as  to  cause  an  image  of  Jupiter,  the  chief  god  of  the 
heathnn,  to  be  placed  in  the  temple,  the  Sanctuary  itself,  and 
its  courts  to  be  sprinkled  with  broth  of  swine's  flesh,  and  a 
BOW  to  be  offered  in  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  burnt-offering. 
At  length,  however,  God  gave  his  people  deliverance.  Judos 
Maccabeus  prevailed  over  the  oppressor  in  war;  liberty  \va- 
recovered  to  the  land;  the  worship  of  God  was  rescued  from 
restraint  and  persecution.  Whereupon,  immediately,  it  was 
held  necessary  to  make  a  public  purification  of  the  Sanctuary, 
and  to  dedicate  it  anew,  as  having  been  stripped  of  its  sanctity 
by  the  wickedness  of  the  heathen.  New  holy  vessels  were 
made  for  its  service,  and  a  new  altar  also  erected,  in  room  of 
the  old  one,  which  it  was  thought  best  to  pull  down,  lest  it 
should  be  a  reproach  to  them,  because  the  heathen  had  defiled 
it.  Then  was  it  dedicated  with  appropriate  sacrifices,  and  with 
bongs,  and  with  instruments  of  music,  all  the  people  rejoicing 
and  praising  the  God  of  heaven.  The  solemnity  was  con- 
tinued  for  eight  days;  and  it  was  at  the  same  time  ordained, 
that  a  festival  of  so  many  days  should  afterwards  be  celebrai.  >1 
from  year  to  year,  with  mirth  and  gladness,  in  commemoration 
of  the  interesting  and  joyful  occasion.  Ever  since,  accordingly, 
such  a  festival  has  been  observed  among  the  Jews.  The  dedi- 
cation of  the  altar  took  place  ou  the  25th  of  the  ninth  month, 
which  answered  in  part  to  our  December,  and  so  the  feast 
came  to  have  its  commencement  ever  after  still  with  that  day, 
falling  of  couise  in  the  season  of  winter.  (John  x.  22.)  Ac 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  39o 

account  of  the  profanati  >n  of  the  temple  may  be  found  in  th« 
first  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  the  Maccabees ;  and  in  tho 
latter  part  of  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  same  is  contained  a 
history  of  the  dedication  now  mentioned,  and  a  notice  withal, 
of  the  original  institution  of  this  festival  to  which  it  gave  riso 


CHAPTER  VII. 
MEMBERS  OP  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH. 

HAVING  considered  the  Sanctuary,  its  ministers,  and  its  ser 
vice,  it  now  becomes  us  to  take  some  notice  of  the  church  at 
large;  to  glance  at  the  manner  of  its  organization,  and  the  prin- 
ciples that  were  appointed  to  unite  and  regulate  its  general 
system. 

The  Jewish  church  had  its  origin  in  the  person  of  the  patri 
arch  Abraham.  From  the  midst  of  a  world  rapidly  falling 
into  the  deep  darkness  of  idolatry,  God  called  him  to  become 
the  Head  of  a  chosen  people,  with  whom  his  truth  and  pro- 
mises might  be  deposited  and  preserved,  till  the  fulness  of  tiuu 
should  come  for  the  introduction  of  the  gospel;  and  entered. 
accordingly,  into  a  gracious  covenant  with  him,  to  be,  not  only 
his  God,  but  the  God  also  of  his  seed  after  him,  and  t:i  take 
them  for  a  peculiar  nation,  consecrated  to  himself,  out  of  all 
the  families  of  the  earth.  That  it  might  be  a  continual  sign 
and  seal  of  this  covenant,  he  instituted  the  rite  of  cln- um<  i*;<,u, 
and  required  it  to  be  observed  with  the  greatest  care.  It  be- 
came, therefore,  a  perpetual  regulation,  never  to  be  dispensed 
with,  that  every  male  child  among  the  Jews,  arrived  at  the 
age  of  eight  days,  whether  born  in  an  Israelitish  hou.se,  01 
bought  with  money  of  any  stranger,  should  be  circiimei>ed. 
(Gen.  xvii.  7 — 14.)  The  covenant  thus  solemnly  entered  into 
with  Abraham,  was  afterwards  renewed  with  his  posterity  at 
Mount  Sinai.  (Ex.  xix.  3 — 8.) 

Every  descendant  of  Abraham,  then,  was  a  member  of  tho 
Jewish  church :  his  birth  made  him  heir  to  all  its  privileges, 
and  subjected  him  to  all  its  authority.  He  had  no  liberty  e\  cr 
to  withdraw  himself  from  the  relation,  if  he  might  even  have 
been  inclined  to  do  so.  IJ  nee,  the  whole  nation  was  compre- 
hended within  the  pale  of  the  visible  church,  and  was  spoken 
of  as  a  kofy  people — a  kiinj<l<»m  t>/j>n'<*ts,  in  covenant  with  God, 
and  interested  in  his  special  favour  and  care.  The  whoh  na- 
tion, accordingly,  carried  the  sign  of  God's  covenant  in  th<:i» 


396  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

Besh,  and  all  its  members  were  required  to  confirm  their  assent 
to  it,  year  after  year,  by  solemnly  observing  the  passover  sup- 
per, aiid  the  various  other  institutions  which  the  law  ordained ; 
while  they  were,  at  the  same  time,  consult-in!  c«|iially  par- 
takers of  all  its  earthly  advantages,  and  equally  concerned  in 
all  the  public  worship  of  the  Sanctuary  with  which  it  was  con- 
nected. 

Still,  there  were  certain  qualifications  of  a  ceremonial  kind 
required,  in  order  to  a  full  and  free  participation,  at  any  lime, 
of  the  outward  privileges  of  the  church.  When  t hese  were 
wanting,  individuals  were  removed,  in  some  measure,  fr.mi  the 
advantageous  state  which  the  rest  of  the  community  enjoyed 
in  this  respect:  they  were  not  at  once  excluded,  indeed,  from 
their  relation  to  God,  as  members  of  his  visible  family,  but 
only  shut  out  for  a  time  from  the  common  liberty  of  its 
society;  yet,  if  the  disqualification  under  which  they  laboured 
was  wilfully  allowed  to  continue  when  it  might  be  put  out 
of  the  way,  it  caused  them  to  be,  in  the  end,  entirely  cut  off 
from  the  sacred  household  and  from  the  commonwealth  of 
Israel,  as  transgressors  of  Jehovah's  covenant  and  despisers 
of  its  glorious  promises.  To  have  part  in  the  outward  privi- 
leges of  the  church,  or  to  engage  acceptably  in  its  outward 
worship,  it  was  necessary,  not  only  that  a  man  should  first  of 
all  have  submitted  to  the  rite  of  circumcision,  but  that  he 
bhould  be,  at  the  time  itself,  ceremonially  clran.  Hereby,  in 
that  shadowy  and  symbolical  system,  it  was  signified,  that 
moral  purity  is  the  first  thing  required  for  drawing  near,  ac- 
ceptably, to  the  Most  High,  in  any  spiritual  service,  and  that 
without  holiness  no  one  can  ever  see  the  Lord  in  peace,  or 
find  admission  into  the  happy  family  of  heaven. 

Ceremonial  uncleanness  was  contracted  in  a  variety  of  ways, 
as  may  be  seen  by  reading  the  llth,  l'2th,  13th,  14th,  and 
15th  chapters  of  Leviticus.  Its  necessary  duration  also  varied 
in  different  cases;  in  some  instances,  continuing  only  till  sun- 
set ;  in  others,  for  a  whole  week ;  and  in  a  few  others  for  a 
btill  longer  period.  While  it  lasted,  it  was  attended  with  con- 
siderable inconvenience;  for  it  not  only  shut  out  the  subject 
of  it  from  the  privileges  of  the  Sanctuary,  but  cut  him  off,  at 
the  same  time,  from  all  free  intercourse  with  his  friends  and 
?ieighbours;  since,  for  any  other  person  to  touch  one  that  was 
thus  defiled,  was  to  make  himself  in  like  manner  unclean ;  and 
he  was  bound,  therefore,  to  let  his  condition  be  known,  and  to 
keep  clear  of  his  acquaintances.  The  most  distressing  of  all 
defilements  «a»  that  which  the  leprosy  gave  rise  to.  We 
have  been  called  to  notice  already  how  the  unhappy  victim  of 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  397 

tfiis  disease,  in  addition  to  all  the  sufferings  directly  occasional 
by  hia  malady,  was  required  to  separate  himself  from  society 
altogether,  and  to  live  a  solitary  outcast  in  the  midst  of  the 
community,  (unless  he  found  some  like  himself,  with  whom  to 
associate  in  melancholy  fellowship,)  all  the  days  that  his  plague 
lasted  upon  him. 

Uncleanness,  however,  though  in  most  cases  made  nccegsary 
only  for  a  limited  and  short  period,  did  not,  in  any  case,  pass 
away  of  itself,  without  some  ceremony  of  purification,  under- 
gone by  the  persons  on  whom  it  rested.  In  most  cases,  all 
that  was  required  of  such  a  person  was  to  bathe  his  body  and 
wash  his  clothes  in  water.  In  other  instances,  when  the  de- 
gree of  defilement  was  considered  to  be  greater,  a  more  solemn 
purification  was  demanded.  Thus,  when  one  had  become  un- 
clean by  the  touch  of  a  dead  body,  or  a  sepulchre,  or  a  single 
bone  of  any  dead  person,  in  which  case  the  defilement  could 
not  be  removed  till  a  week  was  past,  it  was  necessary  that  he 
should  get  some  person  that  was  clean  to  sprinkle  him,  on  the 
third  and  seventh  days,  by  means  of  a  bunch  of  hyssop,  with 
the  sacred  icatcr  of  separation  ;  after  which,  on  the  last  day,  ho 
bathed  and  washed  his  clothes,  as  in  ordinary  cases,  and  so  be- 
came clean  at  evening.  (Num.  xix.  11 — 22.)  The  purifica- 
tion of  persons  recovered  from  the  leprosy  was  accomplished 
with  a  form  of  rites  altogether  peculiar,  of  which  we  have  an 
account  in  the  14th  chapter  of  Leviticus. 

The  water  of  separation,  just  mentioned,  was  pure  fresh 
water,  mixed  in  a  vessel  with  some  of  the  ashes  of  a  red  heifer, 
burned  with  particular  solemnity  for  the  purpose.  An  account 
of  the  singular  manner  in  which  it  was  burned  may  be  found 
in  the  first  part  of  the  19th  chapter  of  Numbers.  A  supply 
of  these  ashes  was  always  kept  on  hand,  for  the  use  of  such 
as  might  need  them  for  purification;  for  still,  as  the  quantity 
furnished  by  one  victim  came  near  to  be  exhausted,  an  addi- 
tional stock  was  provided,  by  selecting  a  new  one  and  destroy- 
ing it  in  the  appointed  way.  As  very  little  of  the  ashes  was 
needed  to  make  the  water  of  separation  in  any  case,  the  quan- 
tity supplied  by  one  heifer  lasted  a  great  number  of  years  j  so 
that,  according  to  the  Jews,  there  were  only  eight  burned  for 
the  purpose  during  the  whole  time  of  the  second  temple. 
They  tell  us  also,  that  the  one  burned  in  the  time  of  Moses, 
without  any  other,  served  the  people  as  long  as  till  the  cupti 
vity;  but  in  this,  their  tradition  is  not  entitled  to  any  oredit 
As  the  service  of  burning  the  red  heifer  returned  ?o  seldom, 
it  naturally  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  solemnity  of  great  inte- 
rest; and,  in  later  times,  accordingly,  was  burned  with 


398  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

share  of  tb  .<  general  encumbrance  of  unmeaning  and  supcrst* 
tii  us  ceremonies,  which  tradition  then  contrived  to  hang,  with 
HO  much  industry  and  zeal,  about  the  whole  ancient  syr.tcm  of 
worship.  In  the  first  place,  the  mo>t  scrupulous  < -arc  was  em- 
I  1  >\cd  in  making  choice  of  the  animal;  for  it  was  held,  that 
if  only  two  hairs  could  be  found  upoa  it  of  white  or  black 
colour,  it  could  not  be  fit  for  this  use.  Then  the  priest  win 
was  to  burn  it  was  shut  up  seven  days  beforehand,  lest  he 
might  suffer  some  defilement  by  touching  a  grave  or  a  dead 
body:  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  which,  also,  when  he 
passed  with  a  company  of  elders  and  other  priests,  from  the 
temple  to  the  place  of  killing  the  victim,  a  great  causeway  was 
raised  upon  arches,  clear  across  the  valley  of  Kidron,  from 
the  eastern  gate  of  the  outer  court,  in  such  a  way  that  no  grave 
could  possibly  hide  in  secret  under  the  ground,  and  so  pollute 
the  procession,  as  it  moved  over  it  to  the  spot  of  its  destination. 
This  spot,  which  was  arched  underneath  in  like  manner  for  the 
same  purpose,  was  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  directly  over  against 
the  front  of  the  temple.  When  the  company  arrived  there  with 
the  heifer,  the  person  who  had  the  principal  service  to  perform 
was  required  to  bathe  himself  in  a  chamber  erected  there  for 
the  purpose;  «vhile  the  other  priests  made  ready  the  wood,  tied 
the  animal,  and  laid  it  upon  the  pile.  The  person  just  men- 
tioned then  came  forward,  applied  the  instrument  of  dcatb  to 
its  throat  with  his  right  hand,  received  the  blood  into  a  vessel 
in  his  left,  and  immediately  sprinkled  it,  with  solemn  silem •<•. 
seven  times,  toward  the  front  of  the  Sanctuary.  The  next 
thing  was  to  set  fire  to  the  pile,  and  to  throw  into  it,  as  it  \\a> 
burning,  some  cedar  wood,  some  hyssop,  and  some  scarlet  wool: 
first  showing  each  of  the  articles,  however,  to  the  company 
around,  and  saying  of  it  three  times  over  in  succession,  '/'///.» 
is  cellar  wootl,  or  hyssop,  or  scarlet  wool,  as  the  <-a-<  might  be; 
to  which,  in  each  case,  they  with  great  gravity  replied,  Will, 
wM,  well.  After  the  burning  was  finished,  the  ashes  were  care- 
fully collected,  pounded,  sifted,  and  laid  up  for  use. 

The  red  heifer,  though  not  presented  directly  at  the  altar, 
had  in  it,  notwithstanding,  the  nature  of  an  offering  for  sin  ; 
as  is  manifest  from  the  use  that  was  required  to  be  made  of  its 
blood,  and  from  the  fact  that,  like  the  bodies  of  those  beasts 
whose  blood  was  carried  into  the  sanctuary,  it  polluted  those 
who  were  concerned  with  the  burning  of  it,  as  being  itself  a 
polluted  thing,  by  reason  of  the  guilt  of  the  people  that  was 
supposed  to  be  laid  upon  it.  Its  ushe*,  therefore,  had  a  puri- 
fying efficacy,  on  the  same  principle  that  made  iUtml  to  be  re- 
gardnd,  in  other  cases,  as  making  atonement  for  the  soul:  they 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQYITIES.  399 

Comprehended,  as  it  were,  the  essential  virtues  of  the  ejrpiatoiy 
leath,  by  which  they  had  been  pr*>cureu;  aud,'when  applied 
to  the  unclean,  were  designed  to  signify,  properly,  an  applica- 
tion of  the  merit  of  that  death,  as  having,  in  its  nature,  power 
to  cleanse  them  from  defilement.  "  Thus  the  whole  institution 
pointed,  with  peculiar  emphasis,  to  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ, 
a»id  expressively  represented  its  availing  virtue  to  purge  away 
the  guilt  of  all  sin  from  the  conscience,  as  well  as  to  procure 
complete  deliverance  from  its  pollution  and  power.  The  Apos- 
tle Paul,  accordingly,  teaches  us,  that  its  shadowy  and  sym- 
bolical efficacy,  like  that  of  the  sin-offerings  presented  on  the 
great  day  of  atonement,  found  the  actual  -reality,  of  which  it 
was  the  figure,  only  in  the  blood  of  Calvary  :  for  as  the  sprink- 
ling of  the  water  of  separation  upon  such  as  were  defiled  ren- 
dered them  ceremonially  clean,  and  so  fitted  them  to  come  before 
God  in  the  solemn  service  of  the  sanctuary,  from  which  thej 
had  been  shut  out;  so  this  blood,  wherever  its  virtue  is  applied, 
cleanses  the  soul  from  real  guilt,  and  qualities  it  to  approach 
the  living  God,  in  an  acceptable  manner,  with  a  service  altoge- 
ther spiritual,  for  which,  until  thus  purged,  it  is  found  totally 
unfit,  and  can  have  no  liberty  whatever.  "  If  the  blood  of  bulls 
and  of  goats,"  the  apostle  argues,  "and  the  a.-Jies  of  a  heifer 
sprinkliny  the  unclean,  sauctiheth  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh, 
how  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who,  through  the 
eternal  Spirit,  offered  himself  without  spot  to  (jrod.jiurye  your 
:oniicieiice  from  dead  works  to  strce  the  l.ivuiy  Gm.1?" 

PROSELYTES. 

To  be  descended  regularly  from  Abraham,  the  father  of  the 
chosen  raee,  was  accounted  a  distinction  of  the  highest  sort,  and 
such  as  elevated  every  person  to  whom  it  belonged  far  above 
all  others  of  the  human  family.  (John  viii.  33  —  59,  2  Cor.  xi. 
22,  Phil.  iii.  5.)  Still,  the  Gentiles,  who  were  destitute  of 
this  advantage,  were  not  ut',erly  shut  out  from  the  possibility 
of  becoming  united  with  the  Jewish  church,  and  obtaining  a 
part  in  its  sacred  privileges.  IJy  renouncing  idolatry  and  every 
false  religion,  and  consenting  to  embrace  the  faith  and  follow 
the  worship  of  Israel,  they  might  find  admission  into  the  holy 
family,  and  become  adopted,  with  all  their  posterity,  into  tlw 
same  highly  favoured  state  that  its  other  members  enjoyed  in 
virtue  (if  their  descent  from  its  original  head.  Such  as  at  any 
time  made  use  of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  were  called 


, 

There  were  some  Gentiles  who  became  convinced  that  the 
Jewish  religion  was  true,  and  renounced  all  idolatry  tor  »lic  *<»r 


«fl)0  BIBLICAL    ANTIQITITIE8. 

ship  ot  the  one  living  and  true  God  of  the  Bib! 3,  and  yet  wcr« 
aot  willing  to  take  upon  themselves  the  rite  of  circumcisiou. 
These  were  not,  of  course,  received  as  full  members  of  the 
Israelitish  church,  and  might  not  have  part  in  its  more  im- 
portant privileges;  still  they  were  regarded  with  considerable 
favour,  aud  were  spoken  of  as  pious  persons.  They  were  accus- 
tomed to  frequent  the  synagogues  in  company  with  circumcised 
Israelites,  and  used  often  to  visit  the  temple  also;  they  were 
not  bound,  of  course,  to  bring  their  sacrifices  there,  when  they 
wished  to  offer  any ;  but  as  they  were  allowed  to  do  so,  they 
generally  embraced  the  privilege,  aud  had  them  presented  at 
the  altur  of  the  sanctuary.  They  were  not  suffered,  however, 
to  offer  sacrifices  there  of  any  other  sort  than  bmmtrofferings ; 
and  it  scarce  needs  to  be  mentioned,  that  they  could  not  accom- 
pany their  victims  into  the  court  where  the  altar  stood,  but 
were  uuder  the  necessity  of  having  them  presented  altogether 
through  the  priests.  This  class  of  persons,  we  are  told,  were 
denominated  Proselytes  of  the,  Gate. 

ouch  as  came  fully  into  the  Jewish  commonwealth  and  church, 
by  submitting  to  the  rite  of  circumcision,  aud  taking  upon 
themselves  the  obligation  of  the  whole  ceremonial  law,  were 
called  Prostdytcs  of  nMUeOMMMM.  These  were  completely 
grafted  into  the  Israelitish  stock,  and  mingled  with  the  origi- 
nal brunches,  in  the  full  and  lasting  participation  of  all  its  ad- 
vantages. In  latter  times,  the  Jews,  especially  the  Pharisees, 
exerted  themselves  with  much  zeal  to  bring  other  JKTSOIIS  to 
embrace  their  religion;  though,  according  to  the  declaration  of 
our  Saviour,  it  was  to  no  good  purpose. 


CHATTER  VIII. 

SYNAGOGUES. 

SACRIFICES  could  be  offered  nowhere  else  than  at  the  sanc- 
tuary, the  great  centre  of  the  whole  Ceremonial  Service;  but 
other  exercises  of  religious  worship  might  be  performed  in  any 
place.  The  law,  however,  did  not  prescribe  any  other  mamiei 
of  public  worship  than  that  of  the  tabernacle  and  temple,  and 
we  are  not  informed  that  any  regular  meetings  of  the  pc«'pie 
for  social  prayer  and  praise,  and  for  the  purpose  of  receiving 
religious  instruction,  were  in  use,  at  any  time,  before  the  cap- 
tivity.  There  were  schools  of  the  prophets,  indeed,  where  youu^ 
jieu  were  trained  up  with  every  advantage  of  this  sort,  tor  the 


Synagogue 


p.  403. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  -101 

service  of  God ;  and  it  was  not  uncommon,  it  seems,  for  per- 
aons  that  desired  such  a  benefit,  to  betake  them  wives,  on  Sib- 
baths  and  new  moons,  to  places  where  prophets  resided,  th.xt 
they  might  be  instructed  from  their  lips;  but  all  this  brought 
only  a  small  portion  of  the  community  under  the  direct  influ- 
ence of  such  religious  privileges,  and  fell  far  short  of  any  thing 
like  a  general  system  of  regular  meetings  through  the  nation, 
of  the  sort  that  has  been  mentioned.  Some  have  been  confi- 
dent that  such  a  system  of  regular  weekly  social  worship  was 
actually  in  use,  and  have  pretended  to  bring  evidence  for  their 
opinion  from  the  Bible;  but  the  evidence  they  produce  is  not 
satisfactory,  and  we  are  left  at  last  to  a  mere  conjecture,  in  sup- 
port of  the  notion;  that  is,  we  find  it,  whether  it  be  false  or 
true,  without  historical  notice.  But  of  the  state  of  things  in 
this  respect,  under  the  second  temple,  we  are  not  thus  igno- 
rant. After  the  captivity,  social  meetings,  held  weekly,  for 
religious  worship,  became  common  all  over  the  land.  They 
were  styled  SfinaooytHi. 

Of  the  origin  of  synagogues,  we  have  in  history  no  account. 
They  seem,  however,  to  have  come  into  use,  if  not  at  an  ear- 
lier period,  at  least  immediately  after  the  nation  returned  from 
its  captivity.  One  opinion  on  the  subject  is,  that  Ezra,  acting 
under  the  direction  of  God,  caused  them  to  be  established  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  among  the  people  generally  a  familiar 
acquaintance  with  the  law,  thus  guarding  them  in  the  most 
effectual  manner  against  the  evil  of  idolatry;  for  Ezra  had  a 
commission  from  Heaven  to  restore  the  Jewish  church,  and 
re-organize  its  worship,  after  the  confusion  into  which  it  had 
been  thrown  by  the  captivity,  so  that  he  has  always  been  re- 
garded by  the  Jews  as  another  Moses,  and  styled,  accordingly, 
The  second  fbwdbp  'if  the  Law.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  institution,  in  whatever  way  it  originated,  was  admirably 
adapted  to  answer  the  end  that  has  been  mentioned,  and  that 
it  did  actually  operate  with  the  most  salutary  influence,  in  this 
way,  during  all  the  period  of  the  second  temple. 

The  word  Synagogue,  means,  properly,  a  meeting  or  congrega- 
tion ;  it  came  naturally,  however,  to  be  used  also  as  the  name 
of  the  place  or  house  where  a  congregation  was  wont  to  assem- 
ble. At  first,  synagogue-meetings  appear  to  have  been  held 
either  in  the  open  air  or  in  private  houses ;  but  after  some 
time,  the  idea  of  erecting  buildings  of  a  public  kind,  expressly 
for  such  use,  was  conceived  and  carried  into  practice.  These 
soon  rose  wherever,  in  any  country,  a  settlement  of  Jews  was 
found,  as  well  as  over  all  their  own  land.  Originally,  we  are 
told,  it  was  usual  to  erect  them  in  fields,  some  distance  ofl 

S4" 


J02  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

from  other  houses;  but  afterwards  they  were  put  up  in 
and  it  was  required  that  they  should  always  stand  in  the  high- 
est places,  and  should  exeeed  in  height  all  the  house's  ahoir 
tliein.  To  build  a  synagogue  was  considered  a  deed  of  piety, 
greatly  acceptable  in  the  eye  of  God,  as  to  build  a  church  has 
ot'ten  been  esteemed  in  Christian  countries.  Hence  it  is  nut 
to  be  wondered  at,  that  they  were  exceedingly  multiplied  in 
some,  places,  far  more  than  the  necessity  of  the  people  called 
for.  Jewish  tradition  assures  us  that  there  were  110  less  than 
four  htnnlrnl  >un/  <'!<jhty  of  them  in  the  single  city  of  Jerusa- 
lem :  a  lying  statement,  we  may  well  suppose;  but  such  as  in  its 
exaggeration  leaves  no  room  to  doubt  that  the  number  must 
have  been  very  great.  Any  person,  a  Gentile  as  well  as  a  Jew, 
might  build  a  synagogue ;  for  the  holiness  of  the  place  was 
supposed  to  result  altogether  from  its  consecration,  after  it  was 
put  up,  without  being  affected  at  all  by  any  previous  circum- 
stances. (  Luke  vii.  4,  5.)  This  consecration  was  merely  by 
prayer,  with  very  little  ceremony  or  formality.  We  are  told  by 
Jewish  tradition,  that  the  general  form  of  synagogues  was  always 
the  same.  They  consisted,  in  some  measure,  of  two  parts  :  one 
of  which  was  called  the  temple,  and  was  designed  to  have  somt 
correspondence  with  the  Most  Holy  Place  of  the  Sanctuary, 
being,  like  it,  retired  in  the  back  part  of  the  building,  and  fur- 
nished also  with  an  ark  or  chest,  made  after  the  model  of  the 
ark  of  the  covenant,  in  which  was  kept  a  copy  of  the  law  foi 
the  service  of  the  place ;  the  other,  which  occupied  the  princi- 
pal body  of  the  house,  was  appropriated  for  the  use  of  the  peo- 
ple, when  they  assembled  for  worship,  and  was  provided  accord- 
ingly, with  ranges  of  seats  or  pews,  for  their  accommodation. 
Before  the  place  where  the  ark  was  kept,  and  toward  the  mid- 
dle of  the  synagogue,  was  erected  a  low  pulpit  or  platform, 
with  a  desk  in  front,  where  the  law  was  read  and  expounded 
before  the  congregation.  A  few  seats  were  placed  behind  this 
pulpit,  on  which  those  that  were  called  elders  were  accustomed 
to  sit,  with  their  backs  turned  toward  the  ark,  and  their  face* 
directed  toward  the  rest  of  the  people,  who  were  all  arranged 
found  about  in  front  of  the  reader,  facing  the  end  of  the  build- 
ing in  which  the  sacred  chest  of  the  law  had  its  retreat.  Tho>e 
seats  which  were  farthest  up  toward  the  pulpit,  and  the  place 
^vhere  the  nrk  was  deposited,  particularly  the  seats  on  which 
the  elders  sat,  seem  to  have  been  the  chlif  v,if.<  of  the  syna- 
gogue, which  it  was  considered  honourable  to  occupy,  ami 
which,  we  are  told,  the  hypocritical  Pharisees  were  accustomed 
«o  much  to  covet  on  that  account.  (Matt,  xxiii.  6.)  The  women, 
it  is  said,  did  not  sit  among  the  men,  but  in  a  sort  of  balcony 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  K'S 

or  gallery  that  was  raised  along  one  side,  .*roni  which  rnej 
eouid  see  into  the  body  of  the  house,  and  hear  all  the  xtrvice 
<>f  the  place  without  being  themselves  much  exposed  to  view 
There  is  a  different  plan  of  building  synagogues  in  use,  at  the 
present  day,  in  the  Kast,  more  completely  accommodated  to  the 
manner  of  the  ancient  temple  at  Jerusalem.  They  are  made  to 
consist  of  a  court  with  porches  round  about;  a  <-li<ij»l  in  the 
middle  of  it,  (answering  to  the  Sanctuary  in  the  Court  of  tin; 
Israelites,)  which  is  supported  simply  upon  four  columns,  au-1 
has  within  it  the  desk  on  which  the  law  is  spread  out  and  rra<l  ; 
and  a  covered  hall  near  this  last,  furnished  with  seats,  for  the 
people  to  occupy  when  the  weather  happens  to  be  stormy  or 
cold.  It  has  been  imagined  by  some,  that  the  ancient  syna- 
gogues were  constructed  upon  this  plan ;  but  since  the  New 
Testament  leaves  us  without  any  hint  to  determine  the  matter, 
it  becomes  us  rather  to  acquiesce  in  the  general  tradition  upun 
the  subject,  and  to  adopt  as  correct  the  representation  already 
given.  It  was  a  rule,  we  are  told,  that  no  place  might  have  a 
synagogue  erected  in  it,  unless  it  contained  at  least  as  many 
as  ten  persons  of  some  learning  and  respectability,  who  were 
in  such  easy  worldly  circumstances  that  they  could  always  have 
leisure  to  take  care  of  its  affairs  and  devote  some  attention  to 
the  study  of  the  law.  A  congregation,  it  was  supposed,  might 
not  consist  of  any  number  smaller  than  this ;  though  there 
was  no  limit,  other  than  convenience,  to  the  greatness  it  might 
have ;  and  in  this  way,  accordingly,  it  was  secured,  that  so 
many,  at  least,  should  be  found  in  every  assembly  gathered 
for  religious  worship :  for  it  was  the  duty  of  the  ten  men  se- 
lected for  the  purpose  to  take  care  that  their  synagogue  should 
never  suffer  a  defect  in  its  service  in  this  respect.  These  select 
men  seem  always  to  have  sustained  the  dignity  of  e&ltrg,  (which 
title  had  respect  not  so  much  to  their  aye  as  to  their  yrm-Iti, 
and  authority,)  and  to  have  had  their  place,  accordingly,  OD 
the  seals  that  were  fixed  behind  the  pulpit.  There  is  auothei 
opinion,  however,  respecting  these  ten  men  of  leisure,  as  they 
were  called,  not  without  considerable  reason  in  its  favour,  which 
represents  them  to  have  been  only  common  persons  hired  to 
be  always  present  at  the  synagogue,  when  worship  was  to  be 
performed,  that  there  might  be  a  certainty  of  having,  at  all 
times,  a  sufficient  congregation  for  the  purpose.  It  is  a  Jewish 
Baying,  that  the  Divine  M<ij<s///  "''^  ""t  '/"''//  amony  less  tlutu 
li  a,  that  is,  that  God  will  not  meet  graciously  with  a  less  uuin 
ber  assembled  foi  public  worship ;  and  he  is  represented  a« 
turning  away  in  anger  from  a  synagogue  that  should  happen  t<» 
be  found  without  that  complement :  but  our  Suviou-  iuculcab 


tUl  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

a  very  different  doctrine,  for  the  encouragement  of  the  pioiii 
in  every  age  :  "If  two  of  you  shall  agree  mi  earth  as  touching 
any  thing  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  fnr  them  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven  :  for  when-  tu-<>  or  ////•«•  an-  gathered 
together  in  iny  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."  [.Mutt, 
xviii.  19,  20.) 

Every  synagogue  had  its  officer*  appointed  to  manage  itt 
government  and  conduct  its  religious  services.  The  suprenift 
direction  of  its  affairs  was  committed  to  the  (are  of  a  cnnm-H 
of  elders,  and  one  styled  tin',  ruler  of  the  xyiiajfKjm-,  who  suti- 
tained  among  them  the  place  of  a  president.  These  elders 
were  persons  of  respectahle  and  intitieiitial  character  in  society, 
and  such  as  had  more  than  ordinary  acquaintance  with  the  law, 
so  as  to  be  qualified  to  take  part  with  their  president,  and 
*ssist  him  with  their  counsel,  in  the  government  of  the  eongre 
gation.  It  seems,  that,  on  account  of  their  authority  in  this 
way,  (hey  also,  at  times,  were  called  /•»/»•/•.•,•  <>f  tin-  .y/"",'/".'/'"'» 
though  the  title  properly  belonged  only  to  the  oflicer  just  men- 
tioned, who  was  placed  at  their  head.  (Acts  xiii.  15.) — Then, 
besides  its  presiding  ruler  and  its  company  of  elders,  eacii 
synagogue  had  its  tl«tr<,n*,  or  collectors  of  alms,  whose  busi- 
ness it  was  to  receive  the  charitable  contributions  of  the 
congregation  from  week  to  week,  and  distribute  them  am  MIL' 
the  poor,  as  they  might  happen  to  be  found  in  need  of  such 
assistance.  It  was  usual,  we  are  told,  to  have  always  three 
persons  appointed  to  manage  this  business;  who,  although 
they  acquired  some  considerable  authority  from  the  nature  of 
their  charge,  were  yet  completely  under  the  control  of  the 
superior  officers  just  noticed,  and  could  never  dispose  of  the 
alms  that  were  put  into  their  hands  in  any  way  which  these 
might  refuse  to  sanction  with  their  approbation. — There  were 
tlso  certain  ////'//  /*/< r.s,  or  attendants,  of  a  still  more  subordinate 
character,  who  had  particular  employment  assigned  to  them 
connected  with  the  general  care  of  the  synagogue  and  its 
service ;  one,  especially,  whose  business  it  was  to  take  the  book 
of  the  law  out  of  the  chest  in  which  it  was  kept,  and  give  it 
to  the  person  who  was  called  upon  to  read,  and  afterwards  to 
receive  it  from  him  again  and  restore  it  to  its  place ;  who  wag 
intrusted,  moreover,  as  it  seems,  with  the  charge  of  having 
the  house  in  order  for  worship,  took  care  that  it  should  be 
swept,  wh?n  necessary,  and  kept  clean,  and  still  opened  the 
doors  and  closed  them  before  and  after  the  times  of  meeting. 
<  Luke  iv.  20.) 

It  was  the  duty  of  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  to  preside  in 
11  its  meetings,  and  to  superintend  and  direct  the  whole  of  its 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  401 

worship.  It  was  not  considered  necessary,  however,  that  he 
should  himstlf,  or  that  some  one  of  the  elders  associated  with 
him,  should  always  take  the  lead  personally  in  every  rr.ligioun 
exercise;  though  the  whole  right  of  doing  this  was  vested 
altogether  in  their  body;  and  the  exercise  of  it,  accoidinglj, 
as  well  as  its  responsibility,  seemed  naturally  to  devolve  upon 
them  alone :  it  was  held  to  be  sufficient,  notwithstandiug,  if  it 
proceeded  merely  under  their  immediate  direction  atd  over- 
sight; so  that  other  persons  might,  by  their  order  or  per- 
mission, perform  such  service  with  perfect  propriety ;  and 
hence  it  was  actually  the  custom,  to  have  it  performed,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  in  this  way  altogether.  Thus  in  every 
meeting,  different  individuals,  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
direction  and  government  of  the  synagogue,  used  to  take  part 
in  conducting  its  public  exercises  of  worship,  under  the  eye 
of  the  president  and  elders.  One  of  these  exercises  was  to 
lead  in  the  prayers  of  the  congregation  :  another,  to  read  a 
particular  portion  of  the  Scriptures;  another,  to  address  the 
people.  The  person  who  performed  the  first  mentioned  ser- 
vice used  to  be  denominated  the  angel  of  the  synagogue,  that 
is,  its  (fi-b'gate,  or  representative,  appointed  to  address  the  throne 
of  God  in  the  name,  and  on  the  behalf,  of  the  whole  assembly. 
It  was  usual  to  iiave  some  one  appointed  to  officiate  in  this 
character  with  regular  and  stated  duty;  and  it  was  a  maxim 
at  the  same  time,  that  the  individual  selected  for  the  purpose 
should  be  one  of  the  greatest  dignity  and  worth,  eminent  above 
most  others  in  the  congregation  for  wisdom  and  virtue,  and,  if 
possible,  clothed  with  the  venerable  solemnity  of  age  and  the 
experience  of  a  multitude  of  days.  In'  some  cases,  however, 
the  angel  of  the  synagogue  was  constituted  merely  for  a  single 
occasion,  and  the  person  chosen  to  officiate  sustained  the  cha- 
racter no  longer  than  the  particular  service  lasted  which  he 
wa«  called  upon  to  perform.  The  other  exercises  that  have 
been  mentioned  were  not  appropriated,  in  any  case,  as  stated 
services,  to  any  particular  individuals  to  the  exclusion  of  others; 
but  different  persons  were  in  the  habit  of  officiating  on  different 
occasions,  as  they  were  invited  to  come  forward  by  the  pnui- 
dent,  either  to  read  or  to  speak,  or  as  they  received  his  appro- 
bation when  they  presented  themselves  of  their  own  accord  tor 
the  purpose,  and  he  found  no  reason  to  deny  them  the  liberty. 
The  privilege  of  addressing  the  people,  however,  WHS  COP- 
Mdered  much  more  important  than  that  of  reading,  and  was, 
Moordingly,  allowed  with  much  less  freedom  :  it  was,  in  fact. 
as  it  appears,  eotifined  in  a  considerable  measure  to  those  who 
had  the  supreme  direction,  the  president  either  exercising  tlio 


406  BIBTICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

right  himself,  or  yielding  place  only  to  some  one  of  the  jow- 
puny  of  elders  of  which  he  was  the  head  ;  and,  so  far  as  it  wa* 
not  thus  confined,  (for  it  was  still  not  uncommon  to  allow  it  to 
persons  who  held  no  office  in  the  Synagogue,)  it  seems  to  have 
been  a  principle  that  no  one  should  be  suffered  to  teach  in  this 
way  who  was  not  in  a  more  than  ordinary  degree  versed  in  tho 
knowledge  of  the  law,  and  so  entitled  to  rank  among  the  wist 
men,  as  such  used  to  be  styled,  by  way  of  distinction  from  the 
common  unlettered  multitude. 

As  those  who  ruled  the  synagogue  and  superintended  its 
regular  service  were  called predtyt<-rs  or  > />/</•>•,  so  they  were 
denominated,  (especially,  as  it  would  seem,  the  president  and 
such  of  the  others  as  were  accustomed  to  take  part  in  teachiny,) 
by  a  figure  familiar  to  the  east,  pastors  or  dbepfordbj  and  had 
the  title  also  of  bisiwps,  or,  to  use  a  different  word  of  the  same 
meaning,  overseers,  in  reference  to  the  watchful  care  and  au- 
thority which  it  was  their  duty  to  employ  in  the  government 
of  the  congregation  for  its  general  welfare  and  the  right  »>rder 
of  its  public  worship. 

We  find  no  express  mention  in  the  New  Testament  of  pub- 
lic worship  in  the  synagogues,  on  any  other  day  of  the  week 
than  the  Sabbath.  Jewish  tradition,  however,  asserts  that  it 
was  common  anciently,  as  well  as  in  more  modern  times,  to 
have  it  regulaily  celebrated  also  on  the  second  and  fifth  days, 
(our  Monday  and  Thursday,)  and  on  all  festival  days  besides, 
such  as  new  moon,  &c.  We  are  told  too,  that  it  was  usual  to 
assemble  on  these  days  as  many  as  three  several  times,  viz.  in 
the  morning,  in  the  afternoon,  and  at  night :  but  on  the  week 
days  the  service  was  short,  consisting  chiefly  of  prayers,  with 
the  reading  of  only  a  small  portion  of  the  Scriptures;  and  on 
the  Sabbath,  the  principal  service  was  that  of  the  morning, 
when  there  was  a  full  reading  of  Scripture,  and  an  address 
made  to  the  congregation;  while  the  afternoon  and  evening 
meetings  were  occupied  more  particularly  with  prayers  and 
singing.  Prayer,  presented  in  public  worship,  was  held  to  be 
more  acceptable  than  prayer  offered  up  in  private;  so  that  as 
many  as  made  any  pretensions  to  piety  were  still  disposed  to 
resort  to  the  synagogues,  on  its  meeting-days,  for  the  per- 
formance of  their  morning  and  evening  devotions,  just  as  it 
was  customary  for  serious  persons  who  lived  near  the  temple 
rx>  go  up  to  its  courts  at  the  times  of  the  daily  sacrifices.  And 
it  appears,  that  the  synagogue  was  considered  an  advantageous 
place  for  individuals  to  present  their  stated  prayers  even  on 
days  when  thof  was  no  public  service  to  be  attended;  as  we 
read  that  the  Pharisees,  to  make  an  ostentatious  show  of  re- 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  407 

hgion  lovid  to  repeat  their  private  prayers  standing  in  ties* 
churches ;  w  hich  at  other  times  they  did  not  scruple  to  d  j  even 
iu  the  most  public  places  of  the  streets,  pretending  that  whet 
the  seasons  for  this  duty  arrived,  their  consciences  wou!d  not 
allow  them  to  neglect  it  a  moment,  wherever  they  might  be 
found,  but  all,  in  fact,  to  be  seen  of  men,  and  to  obtain  the 
praise  of  uncommon  godliness  among  the  multitude  of  the 
world.  (Matt.  vi.  5.) 

When  the  congregation  was  collected  together  for  worship 
on  the  morning  of  the  Sabbath,  the  angel  of  the  synagogue 
I'egau  the  services  of  the  occasion  with  an  ascription  of  glory 
to  God,  and  a  regular  address  of  prayer  toward  his  holy  throne 
Then  the  portion  of  the  law  which  belonged  to  that  day  was 
read,  and  the  reading  of  it  closed  with  another  doxology 
chanted  to  the  praise  of  the  Most  High  ;  after  which  followed 
the  reading  of  the  appointed  portion  from  the  prophets.  Next 
came  the  address  to  the  people,  and  afterwards  another  prayer, 
which  concluded  the  exercises  of  the  meeting.  Such  appears 
to  have  been  the  general  order  observed  in  the  ancient  sen-ice 
of  the  synagogue,  as  well  as  it  can  be  gathered  from  the  occa- 
sional hints  of  the  New  Testament  compared  with  the  manifold 
traditions  of  the  Jews ;  which,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  compre- 
hend much  correct  information  relative  to  the  whole  original 
manner  of  the  institution,  though  it  be  so  confounded  with 
rubbish  derived  from  more  modern  usage,  as  to  be  in  no  small 
degree  difficult  to  be  ascertained. 

At  the  close  of  the  prayers  the  whole  congregation  were 
accustomed  to  say,  Amen,  in  token  of  their  concurrence  with 
him  that  uttered  them,  in  the  feelings  of  thankfulness  or  sup- 
plication which  they  expressed.  So  did  they  respond,  also, 
when  the  priest  pronounced  the  solemn  benediction,  according 
to  the  form  in  Num.  vi.  24 — 20.  It  was  usual,  we  are  told, 
when  this  was  to  be  pronounced,  for  all  the  priests  that  were 
in  the  house,  if  there  happened  to  be  more  than  one,  to  take 
their  station  on  the  pulpit,  and  repeat  it  after  the  manner  that 
was  practised  in  the  daily  service  of  the  Sanctuary.  Lf  there 
was  no  priest  present,  the  angel  of  the  synagogue  used  to  re- 
peat it,  still  introducing  it  in  some  such  way  as  this  :  Our  God 
and  the  God  of  our  fatliers  bless  us  now  with  that  three-fold 
benediction  appointed  in  tin-  lav  to  [»•  ji/-<>i/»i/i>i;(/  l,y  tiie  sont 
of  Aaron,  according  as  it  is  said,  "  The  Lord  bless  thee,  &c." 
The  people,  however,  were  instructed  to  withhold  in  such  a 
case  their  customary  response  of  Amen.  So  goes  the  tradition ; 
and  it  idds  that  this  pronouncing  of  the  benediction  was  toward 


408  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

the  end  of  the  principal  prayer,  though  not  altogether  at  the 
close  of  it. 

It  was  the  custom  to  have  the  whole  law,  that  is,  the  five 
books  of  Moses,  read  over  in  the  synagogues,  every  year. 
Hence,  for  the  sake  of  convenience  and  certainty,  it  was  nil 
di /ided  into  fifty-four  sections,  as  nearly  equal  in  length  a» 
they  could  be  made  without  serious  injury  to  the  sense,  which 
were  appointed  to  be  read  in  regular  succession,  one  every 
week,  till  the  whole  was  gone  over.  It  was  thought  proper  to 
have  as  many  as  fifty-four,  because  the  longest  years  consisted 
of  that  number  of  weeks,  and  it  was  desired  to  leave  no  Sab- 
bath in  such  a  case  without  its  particular  portion  ;  but  as  the 
common  years  were  made  up  of  fewer  weeks,  they  used  in  the 
course  of  these  to  join  certain  shorter  sections,  so  as  to  make 
one  out  of  t»vo,  in  order  to  bring  the  reading  regularly  out 
with  the  end  of  year ;  for  it  was  held  absolutely  necessary  to 
have  the  whole  read  over  without  any  omission,  1>  I'.n-  it  was 
commenced  in  course  again,  as  it  still  was  on  the  first  Sabbath 
after  the  feast  of  tabernacles.  The  copy  of  the  law  used  for 
this  purpose,  which,  like  all  books  of  ancient  time,  was  in  the 
form  of  a  roll,  was  written  with  great  care,  and  generally  with 
much  elegance.  It  was  not  usual,  we  are  told,  for  a  single 
person  to  read  over  the  whole  section  for  any  day,  in  the  syna- 
gogue .  but  several  individuals,  according  to  the  Jewish  repre- 
sentation exactly  seven,  were  called  upon  to  read  in  succession ; 
whence  it  became  the  practice  to  have  each  of  the  sections  di- 
vided again  into  several  smaller  portions  for  their  accommoda- 
tion. Any  male  person,  who  was  not  a  servant,  a  tatter- 
demalion, or  a  fool,  and  was  able  to  read  with  ease  and  distinct 
utterance,  might  be  invited  to  bear  a  part  in  the  exercise: 
only  it  was  the  custom  to  call  upon  some  of  the  more  honour- 
able individuals  present  in  the  congregation,  to  take  the  lead 
in  reading  the  first  two  or  three  portions  of  the  section,  par- 
ticularly it  was  thought  proper  to  have  the  first  portion  read 
by  a  priest,  if  any  was  in  the  house,  and  the  second  by  a 
Levite.  It  is  not  clear,  however,  that  this  partieiilar  manner, 
Chough  found  prevailing  at  a  later  period,  was  all  observed  in 
this  part  of  the  synagogue  service  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour. 

The  reading  of  the  prophets,  which  followed  the  reading  of 
the  law,  was  not  practised  in  the  synagogues  from  their  first 
institution,  but  had  the  origin  of  its  use  in  the  time  of  Antio- 
chus  Kpiphanes.  We  have  already,  not  long  since,  had  occa- 
sion to  mention  the  persecution  which  that  wicked  n-jnster 
waged  against  the  worship  and  the  truth  of  the  God  of  Israel. 
The  rolls  of  the  sacred  law  of  Moses,  whenever  they  could  be 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  409 

discovered,  were  destroyed,  and  the  punishment  of  death  was 
denounced  against  every  individual  with  whom  a  copy  -»f  it 
should  be  found.  In  this  predicament,  those  of  the  nation  who 
still  adhered  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers  were  led  to  make 
choice  of  particular  portion*  out  of  some  of  the  other  books 
of  Scripture,  (which,  because  they  had  not  been  in  common 
a-e,  like  the  books  <if  Moses,  in  the  public  worship  of  the  peo- 
ple, had  not  fallen  under  the  same  tyrannic  condemnation,) 
and  substitute  them  in  room  of  the  ordinary  lessons  from  the 
law,  in  the  service  of  the  synagogue.  In  this  way  a  new  set 
of  lessons  was  introduced,  which  ever  afterwards  continued  in 
use  ;  for  although  when  the  storm  of  that  persecution  had  rolled 
away,  the  original  reading  of  the  law  was  restored  as  it  had 
been  in  the  beginning,  it  was  still  thought  proper  not  to  lay 
aside  these  other  portions  of  Scripture,  but  to  have  them  read 
also,  in  regular  order  as  before,  so  that  it  became  a  perpetual 
rule  to  have  TWO  lessons,  one  out  of  the  law,  and  one  from 
the  prophets,  repeated  in  this  way  every  Sabbath.  The  Jews 
reckoned,  in  that  class  of  their  sacred  books  which  they  deno- 
minated the  prophets,  not  only  such  as  are  actually  prophetical 
in  their  character,  but  the  chief  of  those  also  which  are  merely 
historical,  such  as  Joshua,  Jm/yi-x,  tfamurl,  A7«//*,  ami  C'ftrn- 
nicles  :  whence  the  second  series  of  lessons  comprehended  por- 
tions from  these  last,  as  well  as  from  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Eze- 
kiel,  &c. :  and  these  were  not  connected  in  any  sort  of  order 
with  each  other,  but  had  been  selected  independently,  just  as 
they  were  thought  to  have  some  particular  correspondence  with 
the  sections  of  the  law,  to  which  they  answered  in  the  order  of 
their  course.  As  they  were  quite  short,  in  comparison  with 
the  other  lessons,  they  were  not  divided  in  the  same  way  for 
several  readers,  but  each  used  to  be  read  altogether  by  a  single 
person. 

As  the  Jews,  after  the  captivity,  made  use  of  a  language 
materially  different  from  that  of  their  ancestors,  in  which  their 
sacred  books  were  written,  it  became  necessary  still  to  have  the 
lessons  of  the  synagogue  interpreted,  as  they  were  read,  into 
the  common  tongue.  It  seems  that  even  in  the  time  of  Ezra, 
immediately  on  the  return  of  the  nation  to  their  own  country, 
something  of  this  sort  was  found  necessary,  when  that  holy 
man  caused  the  law  to  be  publicly  read  in  the  hearing  of  the 
people.  (Neh.  viii.  8.)  In  later  times,  however,  especially  from 
the  age  of  the  Maccabees,  it  became  still  more  needful,  and  waa 
secured,  as  it  appears,  with  more  systematic  arrapgement. 
There  is  reason  to  believe,  that  the  idea  of  distributing  the 
Scriptures  into  verses  was  conceived,  and  put  into  practice,  ori- 


410  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ginally,  f  >r  the  sake  of  convenience  and  order  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  synagogue  lessons.  As  it  was  necessary  for  th« 
reader  to  pause  overy  few  moments,  till  the  interpreter  beside 
him  turned  what  he  read  into  the  common  tongue,  it  was  natu- 
ral to  think  of  breaking  the  whole  into  little  portions  of  -uita 
ble  length,  so  that  he  might  not  be  at  a  loss  where  to  stop,  or 
so  liable  to  interrupt  and  confound  the  sense  by  injudicious 
division,  as  he  must  have  been,  if  left  in  every  case  to  cut  it  up 
according  to  his  own  pleasure  :  and  when  verses  w.Te  thus  in- 
troduced into  the  sacred  rolls  of  the  synagogue,  't  was  not 
etrange  that  they  should,  in  time,  become  established  through- 
out the  whole  Jewish  Bible,  as  we  have  them  handed  down  to 
our  own  time,  and  still  everywhere  in  use.  The  ancwrt  tra- 
dition of  the  Jews  is,  that  these,  as  well  as  the  fifty-four  greater 
sections  into  which  the  law  wax  divided,  had  their  origin  from 
no  less  a  source  than  the  inspired  authority  of  Ki.ni  himself. 
The  chapters  into  which  we  find  all  the  Bible  now  distributed, 
it  may  be  here  remarked,  were  invented  more  than  12»M»  \r;,i  - 
after  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  verses  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament at  a  period  considerably  Inter  still.  Nor  was  it  again, 
until  some  time  after  the  whole  Bible  was  thus  divided  and 
sub-divided,  that  the  plan  of  .separating  the  verses  into  distinct 
little  paragraphs,  as  they  are  now  found  in  our  common  copies 
of  the  sacred  volume,  came  into  practice  ;  the  original  plan  hav- 
ing been,  to  let  them  still  follow  each  other,  like  common  sen- 
tences in  other  writings,  in  regular  order  according  to  the  sense 
(as  all  Hebrew  Bibles  are  still  printeJ.)  nnd  to  place  all  th<- 
figures,  when  the  practice  of  numbering  them  was  adopted 
down  along  the  margin,  altogether  out  ot  the  text  itself.  Ana 
truly  it  is  much  to  be  lamented,  that  God's  holy  word  shoulo 
ever  have  been  allowed  to  be  so  cut  up  and  broken  into  pieces 
as  it  has  now  come  to  be  in  our  common  Bibles,  by  having  th« 
Chapters  and  verses  all  completely  separated  throughout ;  as  il 
the  Spirit  that  inspired  it  had  given  it  for  use  in  that  style — 
whereas  the  whole  has  been  the  contrivance  of  man,  and  tend* 
only  to  darken  the  meaning  of  the  sacred  page  from  beginning 
to  end. 

Much  of  our  Saviour's  teaching  was  performed  in  the  synv 
gogues.  We  are  told  that  "  he  went  about  all  the  cities  and 
villages,  teaching  in  their  synayoyues,  and  preaching  the  gos- 
pel of  the  kingdom."  It  appears,  that  before  he  entered  upon 
his  public  ministry,  while  he  lived  as  a  common  man  in  the 
tow  n  of  Nazareth,  he  regularly  attended  the  synagogue  of  the 
place,  as  one  of  its  members,  and  used  often  to  bear  part  as  a 
reader  in  its  stated  services  :  and  we  find  him,  directly  after  he 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  411 

bud  assumed  bis  official  character,  clothed  with  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  addressing  the  same  congregation  as  a  prearhtr  ; 
in  which  capacity  he  continued  afterwards  to  giv<  instruction 
in  these  Jewish  churches  all  over  Galilee,  and  in  other  parts  of 
Juil  M,  wherever  he  came.  (Luke  iv.  14—44.)  As  it  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  he  taught  in  this  way,  in  any  case,  without 
the  consent  of  the  rulers  of  the  synagogues,  if  not  by  their 
express  invitation,  it  has  seemed  strange  to  some,  that  a  per- 
scu  so  much  disliked  as  he  was,  by  the  religious  leaders  of  his 
country,  should  have  been  suffered,  to  such  an  extent,  to  enjoy 
this  great  advantage  for  the  dissemination  of  his  doctrine 
among  the  people :  but  we  are  to  remember,  that  he  was  not 
only  a  Jew  himself,  of  fair  and  unblemished  character,  and 
strio»ly  attentive  to  all  the  requirements  of  the  law,  but  a  man 
at  ti, :  same  time  of  acknowledged  wisdom  and  deep  skill  in  the 
knowledge  of  religion,  who  had  full  claim  to  the  title  of  Rabbi 
or  Dot-tor  ;  and  that  he  was  a  prophet  withal,  "  mighty  in  deed 
and  word  before  God,  and  all  the  people,"  held  in  honour  and 
ylon'jied  by  the  general  multitude,  notwithstanding  the  hum- 
ble style  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  weight  of  reproach  that 
was  flung  upon  him  by  the  groat  and  the  learned  of  the  land: 
so  that  there  was  no  reason  or  room  whatever  to  hinder  him 
from  speaking  in  the  synagogues  ;  and  those  who  had  the  direc- 
tion of  them,  even  if  they  had  been  otherwise  disposed  in  theii 
own  hearts,  could  not  refuse  to  allow  the  privilege,  where  the 
riykt  was  so  universally  acknowledged,  out  of  the  respect  which 
they  were  constrained  to  exercise  toward  popular  sentiment. 
The  apostles,  who  were  also  endowed  with  the  highest  ability 
to  teach,  made  use  of  the  same  opportunity  for  preaching-  to 
the  people ;  and  for  a  time,  the  Gospel  uttered  its  loudest  sound, 
week  after  week,  from  the  pulpit  of  the  synagogue  :  but  it  soon 
became  too  offensive  to  Jewish  prejudice  and  pride  to  be  quietly 
endured,  and  was  accordingly  expelled,  to  seek  for  itaelf  a 
separate  accommodation,  in  some  different  quarter.  We  have 
on  record  a  full  exhortation  delivered  on  one  occasion  by  Paul 
ia  the  synagogue  of  Antioch,  in  Pisidia,  which  may  give  us 
some  idea  of  the  style  in  which  he  was  accustomed  to  improve 
such  opportunity  for  proclaiming  the  glorious  doctrines  of  the 
cross.  (Acts  xiii.  14—41.) 

It  has  been  already  intimated,  that  it  was  the  business  of 
tbo-«!  who  had  the  supreme  direction  of  the  synagogue,  not 
»uiy  to  superintend  and  direct  ite  public  worship,  but  U>  exer- 
cise some  sort  of  yovernment,  also,  over  the  congregation  that 
belonged  to  it.  They  were  invested  with  authority  to  take 
sognisauce  of  particular  offends,  and  'nflict  discipline  upor 


*12  HIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

such  <,f  their  society  as  were  found  guilty  of  them  Th'-j 
might  employ,  it  seems,  private  repntof  and  public  r<l<uk*t 
and  when  the  offence  was  held  particularly  grievous,  or  'li-jsc 
milder  means  proved  unavailing  to  bring  the  offender  to  re- 
pentance and  amendment,  the  more  terrible  penalty  of  c.r  <rm- 
mnnicati/m  was  at  their  disposal.  This,  we  are  told,  might  b* 
either  pnrtfnf,  in  which  case  the  person  on  whom  it  fell  wa* 
cut  off  from  the  liberty  of  free  intercourse  with  every  person 
out  of  his  own  family  for  the  space  of  thirty  days,  though  he 
was  still  allowed  to  enter  the  synagogue,  provided  he  came 
not  within  four  cubits  of  anybody  that  was  in  it;  and  this  was 
the  LESSER  EXCOMMUNICATION  :  or  it  was  complete,  excluding 
him  from  all  the  privileges  of  the  synagogues  entirely,  am 
cutting  him  off,  as  a  heathen  man,  from  the  worshipping 
assemblies  of  his  people;  and  then  it  was  denominated  the 
GREATER  EXCOMMUNICATION.  The  design  of  each  was,  to 
produce  in  the  offender  humiliation  and  sorrow  for  his  conduct, 
and  to  bring  about  a  reformation  of  temper  and  practice,  in 
whatever  respect  he  had  been  found  guilty;  whence  it  was 
common  to  inflict  the  heavier  sentence  only  after  the  other 
had  been  made  use  of  once  or  twice  without  accomplishing 
its  purpose.  It  is  not  clear  that  these  two  sorts  of  excommu- 
nication were  so  distinctly  recognised  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour 
as  they  came  to  be  at  a  later  period;  but  we  have  sufficient 
notice  that  the  punishment  itself  was  in  general  use,  and,  as 
it  seems,  under  its  most  severe  form,  so  as  to  be  held  in  uni- 
versal dread  by  the  people.  The  malice  of  our  Saviour's  ene- 
mies took  advantage  of  the  power  which  was  thus  lodged  in 
their  hands,  to  hinder  the  influence  of  his  doctrine :  they 
agreed,  and  caused  it  to  be  understood,  that  if  any  man  did 
confess  that  he  was  Christ,  he  should  I*-  put  out  of  the  *ynn- 
goyue ;  and  many,  we  are  told,  even  such  as  stood  high  in 
society,  were  deterred,  by  this  consideration,  from  making  such 
a  confession,  though  they  were  convinced  of  his  true  character; 
for  they  loved  the  praise  of  men  more  than  the  praise  of  God. 
(John  ix.  22,  34,  xii.  42,  43.)  The  rulers  of  the  synagogue 
had  power  to  inflict,  also,  when  it  was  deemed  proper,  the 
punishment  of  srouryiny,  which,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
might  consist  of  any  number  of  stripes  under  forty,  but  was  in 
no  case  allowed  to  exceed  that  amount.  Though  full  enough 
of  severity  and  shame,  it  was  not  reckoned  so  disgraceful  01 
terrible,  by  any  means,  as  excommunication.  Our  Saviour 
warned  his  disciple?  to  expect  the  one  as  well  as  the  other. 
(^Matt.  x.  17,  John  xvi.  2.) 

The  Jewish  synagogue  is  entitled  to  our  careful  attention 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIER.  413 

m  its  own  account,  as  an  institution  full  of  wisdom  in  all  its 
general  arrangement,  to  which  the  true  religion  has  been 
greatly  indebted  in  ancient  time  :  but  it  derives  a  still  stronger 
claim  upon  our  interests  and  regard,  from  the  consideration 
that  our  Lord  was  pleased  to  have  it  used  as  a  model  or  pattern 
in  the  original  constitution  of  the  Christian  Church;  so  that 
both  in  its  service  and  in  its  government,  as  all  who  have 
thoroughly  examined  the  matter  are  agreed,  the  latter  became 
u  lively  image  of  the  former ;  and  though  in  certain  respectu 
altered,  of  course,  to  a  somewhat  different  aspect,  was  made  to 
exhibit,  on  the  whole,  the  general  outline  of  its  features,  with 
clear  and  striking  resemblance.  Hence,  a  familiar  acquaintance 
with  the  order  and  usages  of  the  synagogue  cannot  fail  to 
contribute  much  to  a  right  understanding  of  what  we  find 
written  in  the  New  Testament  relative  to  the  manner  of  the 
early  churches;  and  even  the  most  general  information  on  the 
subject  sheds  light,  in  this  way,  on  such  points,  and  is  adapted 
to  guard  the  mind  from  error,  and  help  it  to  a  fair  conception 
of  truth,  when  it  attempts  to  interpret  the  language  of  reve- 
lation concerning  them.  As  the  synagoguges  had  their  presi- 
dents, their  companies  of  elders,  and  their  deacons,  so  had  the 
churches;  and  as  an  evidence  that  the  officers  of  one  were 
considered  as  corresponding  in  every  respect  with  those  of  the 
other,  we  find  the  names,  as  well  as  the  general  powers,  with 
which  they  were  distinguished  in  the  Jewish  congregations, 
faithfully  appropriated  to  them  in  the  assemblies  of  the  Chris- 
tians. (Acts  vi.  1 — 6,  xx.  17,  28,  Phil.  i.  1,  1  Tim.  iii. 
1—13,  v.  17,  Tit.  i.  5,  7,  Heb.  xiii.  7,  17,  1  Pet.  v.  1—4.) 
We  find,  too,  as  far  as  we  have  any  information  on  the  subject, 
the  same  mode  of  worship,  in  a  great  degree,  with  that  of  the 
lynagogues,  practised  in  the  early  churches ;  only  those  who 
had  the  direction  of  it,  in  the  latter  case,  were  not  accustomed 
to  employ  other  persons  to  take  the  lead  in  religious  exercises, 
under  their  eye,  and  in  their  stead,  in  the  same  way  as  the 
rulers  of  the  synagogues  used  to  do ;  but  in  almost  all  cases 
exercised,  themselves,  in  this  respect,  the  right,  for  the  use 
of  which  they  were  responsible.  Thus  there  was  no  such  a 
person  in  the  churche*  as  the  angel  of  the  synayoyw.,  who, 
without  any  official  character,  was  employed  to  go  before  the 
^ongregation  in  their  prayers :  the  presiding  elder,  or  bi&hup{ 
himself,  discharged  this  duty,  as  well  as  that  of  addressing  the 
people  with  religious  instruction ;  on  which  account,  as  it 
seems,  he  was  sometimes  distinguished  by  the  appellation  of 
the  aiujel  of  the.  church,  as  we  find  the  bishops  of  the  seven 
ehurches  of  Asia  severally  denominated  in  the  second  and 


414  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

third  chapters  of  the  book  of  Revelation.*  It  may  be  remarked, 
also,  that  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  was  regularly  eeletntod 
in  the  Christian  churches  every  week,  was  an  institution  alto- 
gether peculiar  to  their  worship,  to  which  there  was  nothing 
that  corresponded,  in  any  way  whatever,  in  the  services  of  the 
synagogue. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
RELIGIOUS  SECTS. 

THE  Jews,  before  the  time  of  Christ,  had  become  very  ex- 
ten*ively  dispersed.  Various  causes  had  contributed  to  scatter 
them  into  every  country  of  the  civilized  world,  and  they  did 
not  fail  to  make  proselytes  to  their  religion  wherever  they 
happened  to  reside.  Thus  God  was  pleased,  in  his  sovereign 
wisdom ,  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  dissemination  of  the  light 
of  the  gospel  among  all  nations;  for,  not  only  was  some 
knowledge  of  the  first  principles  of  all  true  religion  diffused 
abroad  by  this  means,  but  an  opening  was  secured  for  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  every  part  of  the  Roman 
empire ;  since,  in  every  important  place  to  which  the  apostles 
came,  they  found  those  that  professed  the  Jewish  religion ; 
and  being  Jews  themselves,  were  always  allowed  at  tirst  to 
preach  in  the  synagogues.  These  Jews,  dispersed  among 
the  Gentiles,  (John  vii.  35,)  carefully  preserved  themselves, 
wherever  they  dwelt,  separate  from  other  people,  and  still  con- 
tinued to  cherish,  with  religious  fidelity,  their  connection  with 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem;  not  only  paying  for  its  use  the 
yearly  half-shekel  tax,  as  regularly  as  their  brethren  in  Pales- 
tine, but  making  it  their  practice,  also,  to  visit  it  personally, 
for  the  celebration  of  their  great  festivals,  as  often  as  circum- 
stances would  allow ;  or,  when  this  could  not  be  done,  to  send 
gifts  by  the  hands  of  others.  (Acts  ii.  5 — 11.)  In  Egypt, 
indeed,  where  a  great  number  of  them  resided,  they  had 
erected,  about  150  years  before  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  a 

•  "The  only  question  respecting  these  angflt,  or  bithopt  of  the  churchet,  is,  whether, 
they  were  patUrrt  qf  tingle  ctiurchrt,  or  dincetun  bithopt,  who  xuperintended  all  the 
churche*  within  a  certain  district,  and  who  were  .superior,  by  their  office,  to  presby- 
ters We  are  not  dinpoted  to  enter  into  a  dincuaaion  of  this  controverted  point.  It 
Ljanifostly  does  not  relate  to  the  vital  principles  of  Christianity.  Let  every  in  in 
investigate  thin  subject  for  himxelf.  and  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind.  And 
•«t  not  the  g»eet  bond  of  brotherly  love  be  severed  by  JifMwcsri  of  opinion  r» 
» peeling  potuU  »f  external  crder  and  government" 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQIMTI-  S.  41") 

uew  temple,  exactly  after  the  plan  of  that  which  was  at  Jeru- 
salem, and  established  in  it  a  sepai'-it--  >y-f  in  of  public  worship, 
under  the  care  of  Levites  and  regular  priests  of  the  family  of 
Aaroi.,  justifying  the  measure  Dy  a  wrong  interpretation  of 
Isaiah  xix.  18,  19 ;  but  still  the  superiority  of  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem  was  acknowledged,  and  the  privilege  of  being  con- 
nected with  it,  by  no  means  relinquished  :  so  that  the  Jews  of 
Palestine,  although  somewhat  dissatisfied  at  first,  were  content 
in  ihe  end  to  wink  at  the  irregularity,  and  keep  up  still  a 
friuidly  correspondence  with  this  important  branch  of  their 
church.  Such  Jews  as  spoke  the  Greek  language  were  called 
//•:lfi'Hi)i(x,  or  Grecians.  These  were  found  not  only  in  Greece, 
through  Asia  Minor,  and  in  Egypt,  but  in  various  other  coun- 
tries of  the  Roman  empire,  (so  extensive  was  the  use  of  that 
language  become,)  and  even  to  some  extent,  as  we  learn  from 
Acts  vi.  1,  in  Palestine  itself.  (Acts  5x.  29,  xi. '20.)  The 
whole  church,  though  joined  together  in  general  harmony  as 
a.  single  body  when  its  relation  to  th-j  r;:st'of  the  world  was 
in  question,  was,  nevertheless,  not  free  from  sectarian  divisions 
and  disputes.  Three  regular  sects  arose  un  ler  the  second 
temple,  and  continued  to  flourish  till  the  destruction  of  the 
state,  which  differed  widely  in  their  religious  sentiments,  and 
charged  one  another  with  the  most  serious  errors — which,  in 
each  several  case,  no  doubt  was  done  not  without  reason.  The 
precise  time  when  they  took  their  rise  is  not  known ;  but  we 
are  assured  that  they  were  all  flourishing  in  the  age  of  the 
Maccabees,  150  years  before  Christ,  and  must  refer  their 
origin,  therefore,  to  a  more  remote  period.  We  will  now 
proceed  to  give  some  account  of  the  principles  and  character 
of  each  of  them  in  order,  after  which  it  will  be  proper  to 
notice,  also,  the  Samariteau,  whose  religious  faith  and  wor- 
ship, being  derived  altogether  from  the  Jewish  church,  give 
them  a  natural  claim  to  our  attention  in  connection  with  the 
Jewish  sects. 


SECTION    I. 
THE  PHARISEES. 

THE  PHARISEES  borrowed  their  name  from  a  word  which 
means  to  separate,  because  they  affected  to  be  more  strictly 
religiouu  than  other  people,  and  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
common  multitude,  not  only  for  their  superior  acquaintance 
with  the  Divine  will,  but  also  by  reason  of  their  "Xjcu'.iar  into 
rest  in  the  friendship  and  favour  of  God. 


416  BIBLICAL    AiNTIQUITJKS. 

They  believed,  we  arc  told,  in  the  existence  of  an^rel*  :n»» 
in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  (Act*  xxiii.  S,  U.)  At  the 
gillie  time,  we  learn,  that  they  held  the  doctrine  of  the  (rant 
migration  of  souls,  so  important  in  certain  systems  of  heathen 
philosophy,  which  pretends  that  they  pass  after  death  into  other 
bodies,  and  so,  completely  forgetful  of  all  their  former  condi- 
tion, continue  to  act  a  part  upon  the  theatre  of  life,  while,  tb) 
frames  in  which  they  once  resided  lie  mouldering  in  the  dust. 
They  held  it  not,  however,  m  the  same  broad  extent  with  which 
it  has  been  received  in  these  systems  :  they  did  not  admit  that  a 
human  soul  might  ever  pass  into  the  body  of  a  dumb  animal, 
'0  as  to  put  any  person  in  danger  of  destroying  his  grandfather 
when  he  might  venture  to  kill  a  calf  or  a  chicken ;  and  they 
did  not  allow  that  all  souls  were  appointed  to  re-appear  in  suc- 
cessive lives  after  this  fashion.  It  was  considered  a  privilege, 
it  seems,  which  only  the  comparatively  righteous  were  allowed 
to  enjoy,  after  being  rewarded  for  a  time  in  their  separate  state, 
while  the  spirits  of  the  wicked  were  doomed  to  go  away  into 
everlasting  torments.  It  has  been  supposed,  that  there  is  a  re- 
ference to  this  sentiment  in  that  question  which  was  put  to  our 
Saviour  by  his  disciples,  concerning  the  blind  man  of  whom 
we  have  an  account  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John 
— Master,  who  did  sin,  ^/i/'.s  man  or  It  /.s  />un  ///x,  that  hr  ;/•<<.>• 
Ifjrn  blind?  for  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  how  the  birth  of 
any  one  could  be  imagined  to  be  thus  unfortunate  on  account 
of  his  own  sinfulncss,  unless  under  the  idea  of  a  previous  life 
enjoyed  by  the  soul  in  some  other  body.  How  this  doctrine 
of  transmigration  was  made  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  doc 
trine  of  the  resurrection,  which  it  has  just  been  intimated  wan 
entertained  by  the  same  sect,  is  not  by  any  means  clear.  Some 
have  thought,  that  they  were  not  really  different  doctrines  at 
all,  but  that  the  resurrection  which  the  Pharisees  taught  was 
nothing  more  than  this  transmigration  itself,  which  brought 
such  as  were  not  notoriously  wicked  once  more  back  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth.  Perhaps  there  was  some  diversity 
of  sentiment  among  themselves  in  relation  to  the  future  fate 
of  souls;  in  which  case  it  might  be  that  opinions  which  were 
uever  held  actually  at  the  same  time  in  all  their  length  and 
breadth  by  the  same  persons,  but  were  only  different  notions 
of  different  classes  belonging  to  the  general  body,  have  been 
improperly  joined  together  as  entering  alike  into  the  common 
faith  of  the  whole  sect. 

The  Pharisees  have  been  charged  with  holding  the  doctrine 
of  fate.  But  the  doctrine  of  fate  is,  that  all  things  take  place 
*)j  such  a  continual  and  inflexible  necessity  as  le-iv,-*  no 


BIBLICAL     ANTIQUITIES.  41? 

foi  the  action  of  free  causes,  and  makes  it  certain  that  an  event 
will  come  to  pass,  as  it  does  in  the  end  come  to  pass,  whether 
preparatory  means,  which  in  fact  bring  ahout  its  result,  be  put 
into  previous  ofteration  or  not — an  absurd  doctrine  that  carries 
its  destruction  in  its  own  bosom ;  whereas,  the  great  Jewisk 
historian  assures  us  that  this  sect,  while  they  held  the  absolute 
and  unalterable  certainty  of  all  things  according  to  the  eterna. 
determination  of  God,  yet  insisted  that  the  will  of  man  waa 
free,  and  that  its  influence  in  the  great  machinery  of  action 
which  fills  the  world,  mighty  and  constant  as  it  is,  proceed! 
with  unrestrained  and  continual  liberty.  On  this  point,  there- 
fort-,  though  these  notions  of  theirs  have  seemed  to  some  as 
incompatible  as  the  two  doctrines  of  transmigration  and  the 
resurrection,  the  Pharisees  appear  to  have  entertained,  in  the 
main,  the  same  sentiment  that  is  taught  in  the  New  Testament, 
ami  the  only  one  which  sound  reason  can  approve  Admitting 
the  self-evident  proposition,  that  nothing  can  occur  except  in 
accordance  with  the  plan  of  Infinite  Wisdom,  which  stretches 
t/t'.-:i:/>i  through  all  the  system  of  creation,  and  explores  at  one 
glance,  from  beginning  to  end,  the  whole  order  of  its  innume- 
rable changes,  they  embraced  at  the  same  time  the  clear  dictate 
of  universal  consciousness,  that  every  man  chooses  or  refuses 
in  all  he  does  according  to  his  own  pleasure,  without  any  other 
constraint  whatever,  so  as  to  be  altogether  accountable  for  every 
thing  that  is  wrong ;  rightly  concluding,  that  it  is  as  easy  for 
God  to  make  events  certain  which  depend  on  human  will  with- 
out interfering  with  its  freedom,  as  it  is  for  him  to  make  cer- 
tain those  that  depend  on  the  operations  of  the  material  world 
without  hindering  their  regular  and  natural  order;  since  we 
must  allow,  unless  we  would  represent  man  to  be  the  empty 
plaything  of  chance,  that  there  is  as  much  order  and  law  in 
the  manner  of  all  the  changes  that  take  place  in  his  mind  aa 
there  is  in  the  endless  succession  of  changes  which  follow  each 
other  as  causes  and  effects  in  the  system  of  mere  matter,  though 
the  nature  of  these  laws  and  the  way  of  their  action  be  dif- 
ferent in  either  case,  according  to  the  different  quality  of  the 
subjects,  vis.  mind  and  matter,  to  which  they  respectively  be- 
long. 

A  primary  article  in  the  creed  of  the  Pharisees,  and  one 
(,hat  became  a  most  frightful  source  of  evil  in  their  character 
and  conduc*  was,  that  in  addition  to  the  >m'ffi  >i  law  found  in 
the  Hible,  and  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  and  completing 
its  otlierwi-e  dark  and  defective  system,  <;.>d  had  Jvt-n  also  an 
•ji-al  law,  to  be  handed  down,  without  being  OOOUUtted  to  writ- 
ing,  by  mere  tradition,  from  generation  to  generation  ;  and  th»f 


418  BIBLICAL    ANTIQL1TIES. 

this,  accordingly,  had  full  as  much  obligation  upon  men  a»  the 
utlier,  and  was  to  be  deemed  in  fact  even  more  important,  inas- 
much as  without  it  the  whole  law,  it  was  maintained,  would 
Lave  been  without  light,  without  order,  and  comparatively  with- 
out use.  It  is  needless  to  say,  that  the  traditions  of  which  this 
law  consisted  were  altogether  of  human  authority,  and  that 
(hey  had  not  all  taken  their  rise  at  once,  but  were  introduced 
gradually  from  the  usages  and  opinions  of  different  ages,  still 
gathering  new  accession  to  their  mass  as  it  rolled  forward,  till 
it  acquired  that  monstrous  size  which  it  had  in  the  end.  It 
serins  to  have  been  only  about  a  hundred  years  before  the  time 
of  Christ  that  they  came  to  be  regarded  as  of  such  high  im- 
portance, that  the  written  law  itself  was  less  in  honour  and 
regard;  and  the  neglect  of  them  was  counted  impious  as  the 
worst  infidelity.  The  traditionary  law,  however,  claimed  for 
itself,  of  course,  a  far  more  honourable  history,  and  since  it 
aspired  to  equal  authority  with  the  true  law  of  God  given  of 
old  to  Mosed  in  the  wilderness,  referred  its  origin  to  the  same 
antiquity,  and  to  the  same  high  and  holy  source.  The  Lord, 
it  pretended,  had  uttered  it  all  in  the  ear  of  his  servant  on 
Mount  Sinai,  that  it  might  serve  to  interpret  and  explain  the 
other  law  which  was  committed  to  writing.  Then  Moses,  when 
be  came  down  into  his  tent,  had  repeated  it  all  over,  tirst  to 
Aaron  alone,  next  to  his  two  sons  in  his  presence,  then  to  the 
seventy  elders,  and  lastly,  while  all  these  still  listened,  to  the 
whole  assembled  congregation  of  Israel ;  so  that  when  he  went 
out,  Aaron,  having  heard  it  four  times  recited,  was  able  to  say 
it  over  in  his  turn,  then  his  sous,  after  he  withdrew,  could  re- 
peat it  again ;  and  on  the  departure  of  these,  the  seventy  elders 
found  no  difficulty  in  rehearsing  the  whole  still  another  time 
before  the  people — by  which  means  everybody  gave  it  four 
bearings,  and  was  able  to  go  home  and  repeat  it  tolerably  well 
to  his  family,  while  the  priests  and  elders  had  it  so  fixed  iu 
their  minds  that  it  was  not  possible  for  a  particle  of  it  to  be 
(ost.  Afterwards,  Moses  again  carefully  said  it  over,  just  lie- 
fore  he  died,  tc  Joshua.  Joshua  delivered  it  to  the  care  of  1  he 
elders.  The  elders  handed  it  down  to  the  prophets.  The 
nrophets  left  it  finally  to  the  charge  of  the  wise  doctors  who 
flourished  under  the  second  temple,  and  so  it  came  down  iu  all 
the  perfection  of  its  original  revelation  to  the  latest  period  of 
the  Jewish  state.  Thus  the  oral  law  made  out  its  goodly  title 
to  respect  and  veneration,  and  presumptuously  challenged  for 
itself  a  right  to  control  at  pleasure  the  meaning  of  God's  writ- 
ten word.  The  Pharisees  discovered  great  zeal  in  the  support 
'>f  its  claims,  and  employed  it  in  many  cases  to  counteract  the 


BIBLIC\L    ANTIQUITIES.  419 

true  spirit  of  the  Bible,  actually  making  the  word  of  Gcxl,  nf 
our  Saviour  said,  of  no  tffect  by  their  traditions.  (Mark  vii.  1 
— 13.)  These  traditions  led  them  to  observe  a  multitude  of 
ui-.c  uiimunded  ceremonies,  as  foolish  oftentimes  as  they  were 
useless,  and  loaded  their  religion  with  a  weight  of  formality  and 
superstition  under  which  it  was  hardly  possible  for  a  single 
-ight  principle  of  piety  to  avoid  being  crushed  and  destroyed 
Itogether. 

Thus  the  washing  of  hands  before  meals,  which  had  a  very 
good  reason  for  its  practice  in  the  manner  that  they  were  an- 
ciently made  use  of  in  eating,  was  converted  at  length  into  a 
solemn  religious  duty,  and  the  omission  of  it  was  looked  upon 
as  a  crime  of  the  most  offensive  sort,  that  merited  no  less  a 
punishment  than  death  itself.  So  other  washings,  as  of  cup? 
and  pots  and  tables,  came  to  be  established  as  sacred  duties. 
In  similar  style,  they  added  other  precepts,  without  end,  to 
the  divine  law ;  and  clothed  indifferent  or  unmeaning  practices 
with  the  highest  solemnity  of  religion. 

In  all  this  zeal  which  they  showed  in  favour  of  the  traditions 
of  the  elders,  the  Pharisees  affected  a  character  of  extraordinary 
piety  ;  such  as  was  not  content  to  conform  itself  merely  to  the 
letter  of  the  law,  but  sought,  for  its  direction,  a  higher  and 
more  difficult  rule.  They  measured  the  worth  of  their  religion 
by  the  multitude  of  its  outward  observances,  however  empty 
and  idle  most  of  them  might  be,  and  fancied  themselves  inure 
righteous  than  others  in  proportion  as  they  outstripped  them 
in  the  mere  show  of  devotion ;  though  beneath  it  might  be 
nothing  but  hypocrisy  and  pride.  It  was  not  strange,  accord- 
ingly, that  hypocrisy  and  pride  should  actually  characterize  the 
sect,  and  that,  since  they  looked  upon  mere  external  rites  and 
appearances,  such  as  strike  the  attention  of  the  world,  as  hav- 
ing in  themselves  the  nature  of  righteousness  and  highest 
merit,  they  should  indulge  the  most  selfish  passions,  always  so 
congenial  to  the  human  heart,  even  while  they  seemed  to  others 
and  to  themselves  to  be  continual  patterns  of  the  most  rigorous 
piety.  The  religion  which  they  used,  though  in  many  respects 
it  was  severe  and  hard  to  be  complied  with,  had  nevertheless 
tico  attractions  which  would  have  made  it  welcome  to  the  car- 
nal mind,  if  it  had  been  attended  with  yet  far  more  difficulty; 
it  was  in  its  whole  nature  o*t<  nitit!»nx,  and  adapted  to  secure 
worldly  admiration  for  the  gratification  of  pride ;  and  it  was  at 
the  same  time  highly  i i*f-riyhtto-u*j  elevating  the  man  to  whom 
it.  belonged,  according  to  its  own  representation,  to  the  highest 
degree  of  earthly  holiness ;  and  giving  him  assurance,  on  ac- 
count of  his  merit  in  this  respect,  of  the  m-jat  unbounded  favour 


420  BIBLICAL    ANTIQLITIEs. 

of  God — all,  too,  without  any  restraint  upon  the  inward  mai*. 
which  might  still  rankle  with  all  manner  of  corruption  like  the 
cavern  of  a  whited  sepulchre,  'and  without  any  regard  to  tht 
weightier  matters  of  the  law,  such  as  judgment,  mercy,  and 
faith,  which  might  still  be  disregarded  with  contempt,  and 
wantonly  trampled  under  foot.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at. 
therefore,  that  the  Pharisees — though  they  distinguished  them 
selves  from  others  as  more  excellent  and  holy  than  they,  and 
were  looked  upon  by  the  world  as  the  most  righteous  of  the 
earth — though  they  made  many  long  prnyrrx  in  the  syna- 
gogues and  in  the  streets — though  they  f<i*t«l  with  a  >ad  eoui.- 
tenancr,  on  the  second  and  fifth  days  of  every  week — though 
they  washed  with  the  most  scrupulous  care  day  after  da}',  and 
were  so  afraid  of  being  contaminated,  that  they  would  not  so 
much  as  eat  with  Gentiles  and  those  whom  they  counted  sin- 
ners, such  as  publicans  and  harlots — though  thev  paid  tithes 
of  all  they  possessed,  so  care-fully  that  not  even  the  smallest 
garden  herbs,  mint,  anise,  and  cummin,  were  neglected — though 
they  affected  the  most  rigid  respect  to  the  Sabbath,  and  to 
every  form  of  worship  in  the  temple  and  the  synagogue — though 
they  made  the  bonler-fri nyes  of  their  garments  large  and  their 
phylacteries  broad  in  token  of  their  piety — and  though  they 
professed  the  greatest  veneration  for  the  ancient  prophets,  and 
builded  the  tombs  and  garnished  the  sepulchres  of  the  righteous 
dead — it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  1  say,  that  the  Pharisees, 
with  all  this  show  of  religion,  were  full  of  the  most  worldly 
spirit,  and  under  the  dominion  of  the  most  shameful  principles 
— that  they  prayed  and  fasted  and  did  all  their  deeds  of  piety 
to  be  seen  of  men — that  they  courted  every  sort  of  distinction, 
the  uppermost  rooms  at  feasts,  the  chief  seats  in  the  synagogue, 
and  respectful  greetings  and  titles  of  honour  in  public  places — 
that  they  neglected  in  a  great  measure  altogether  the  practice 
of  the  highest  moral  virtues — and  that  many  of  them  indulged 
all  manner  of  secret  iniquity  in  their  hearts,  and  under  the 
tloak  of  extraordinary  piety  were  full  of  the  vilest  extortion 
and  excess; — while  yet,  all  the  time,  they  were  blinded  to  the 
hollow  worthlessness  of  their  character,  and  really  imagined, 
that,  on  account  of  their  multiplied  duties  of  outward  religion, 
and  the  strictness  of  their  formality,  they  stood  high  in  the 
favour  of  Heaven  is  truly  as  they  procured  for  themselves  the 
Admiration  and  applause  of  men.  (Matt.  vi.  1,  2,  5,  16,  xii. 
1—14,  xiii.  1—14,  xxiii.  1—31,  Luke  xviii.  9—14.)  We 
are  not  to  suppose,  however,  that  all  who  belonged  to  the  sect 
were  thus  egivgiously  inconsistent  and  hypocritical;  though 
the  general  body  was  undoubtedly  corrupt,  there  were  not 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  421 

waiting  in  it  persons  of  truly  excellent  and  upright  character, 
whose  principles  of  virtue  wen-  laid  IIJKHI  a  deeper  foundation, 
and  whose  morality  acknowledged  a  more  cu  lightened  and  com- 
prehensive rule. 

Though  we  are  told  that  those  of  them  who  occupied  the 
seat  of  Moses,  and  undertook  to  explain  the  duties  of  religion, 
used  to  inculcate  a  more  difficult  arid  laborious  lesson  than  they 
were  willing  themselves  to  practise,  binding  heavy  burdens  on 
other  men's  shoulders,  to  which  they  refused  to  apply  one  of 
their  own  fingers,  (Matt,  xxiii.  2 — 4,)  it  is  yet  certain,  that, 
according  to  their  own  system  of  righteousness,  which  made 
the  reality  and  merit  of  religion  to  consist  especially  in  out- 
ward observances,  the  Pharisees,  as  a  sect,  were  remarkably 
strict  and  severe.  They  are  styled  by  the  apostle  Paul  tht 
most  sfrntfffif  *«•(  of  the  Jewish  religion,  (Acts  xxvi.  5;)  and 
the  occasional  notices,  that  are  scattered  through  the  Gospels, 
of  their  minute  and  careful  attention  to  the  wearisome  and 
burdensome  forms  of  their  own  superstition,  are  enough  to 
convince  us  that  the  character  which  they  had  in  this  respect 
was  not  without  reason  in  their  general  manner  of  life.  Thai 
they  had  much  of  a  certain  sort  of  righteousness,  which,  though 
false  and  hollow  in  the  eye  of  God,  was  nevertheless  wrought 
out  with  exceedingly  great  care  and  pains,  far  surpassing  the 
common  diligence  of  men  in  this  matter,  is  intimated  also  in 
that  declaration  of  our  Lord,  "  I  say  unto  you,  that  except 
your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  (Matt.  v.  20.)  The  reputation  and  influence  which 
they  acquired  by  reason  of  this  eminent  character  for  religion 
was  very  great,  and  made  them  altogether  the  most  powerful 
party  in  the  state — an  advantage  which  their  pride  and  ambi- 
tion were  ever  prone  to  abuse,  and  which  was  actually  employed, 
from  time  to  time,  only  to  disturb  the  order  and  tranquillity 
of  the  country. 

But  while  the  religion  of  this  sect  professed  to  take  for  itself 
the  strictest  rule,  and  affected  to  do  even  more  than  the  letter 
of  the  written  law  required,  it  not  only  gave  indulgence  to  tho 
worst  feelings  and  passions  of  the  heart,  a?  we  have  already 
K>ticed,  but  proceeded  also  to  pervert  the  true  meaning  of  the 
word  of  God,  and  to  erect  a  different  standard  of  Humility,  less 
at  variance  with  the  natural  temper  of  the  human  mind.  Thus, 
us  it  added  to  the  truth  of  Heaven  in  one  quarter,  it  secretly 
took  away  from  it  in  another;  loaiHiiy  it  with  the  dreams  of 
a  self-righteous  superstition,  while  it  sought  to  strip  it  of  itf 
.ative  spirituality  -aid  power,  in  order  that  it  might  seem  t« 


422  BiLLICAL    ANTIQUITIES 

accord  completely  with  that  defective  and  carnal,  (hot^b 
highly  imposing  scheme  of  piety  which  they  held  up  to  ihc 
admiration  of  the  world.  In  some  cases,  they  pervrted  the 
spirit  of  Scripture,  by  exalting  mere  civil  statute*  into  the  place 
of  moral  rules,  or  insisting,  that  whatever  the  law  of  Mosea 
allowed  must  needs  be  in  its  own  nature  right  and  safe,  under 
all  circumstances ;  not  making  a  proper  discrimination  between 
principles  of  public  government  and  principles  of  private  mo- 
rality ;  and  forgetting  that  without  a  continual  miracle  exerted 
to  control  the  minds  of  men,  some  things  must  be  permitted, 
on  account  of  the  hardness  of  the  people's  hearts,  in  the  con- 
stitution of  every  civil  society,  which  are  not  in  themselves 
proper,  nor  may  at  all  be  adopted  as  safe  maxims  tor  individual 
conduct.  In  this  way,  they  derived  some  countenance  from 
the  Bible  to  maxims  that  were  selfish  and  unjust,  and  contrary 
to  the  whole  general  tenor  of  the  Scriptures.  (Matt.  v.  #1 — \'l. 
xix.  3 — 9.)  At  other  times,  they  adhered  too  closely  to  the 
verj  letter  of  the  law,  or  rather  attached  to  the  letter  too  nar- 
row a  sense,  which  was  altogether  at  variance  with  its  true 
spirit.  Thus  they  limited  the  obligation  of  the  law,  which 
required  them  to  love  every  man  his  neighbour,  to  the  narrow 
compass  of  their  own  friends  around  them,  or  at  least  their 
own  people,  and  considered  themselves  at  liberty  to  despise 
others,  and  to  hate  their  enemies,  as  much  as  they  pleased. 
(Matt.  v.  43,  44,  Luke  x.  29 — 37.)  By  attaching,  also,  an 
undue  importance  to  ceremonial  precepts  and  ovfward  obser- 
vances, or  looking  upon  them  as  if  they  comprehended  the 
greatest  piety  in  their  mere  forms,  they  lost  sight,  in  many 
cases,  of  true  morality ;  and  brought  themselves  to  be  indif- 
ferent about  that  spiritual  service  which  the  Lord  requires  in 
all  who  worship  him,  and  without  which  the  most  diligent  ami 
laborious  show  of  religion  can  have  no  worth  whatever  in  his- 
sight.  In  this  way  they  verified,  in  a  remarkable  manner,  the 
old  proverb  which  we  find  applied  to  them  by  our  Saviour : 

Blind  guides  !    which  Strain  nut  a  ;/nnf,  and  xtrulhur  a  cmnif  ! 

They  made  clean  the  outside  of  the  cup  and  Hie  platter,  but 
gave  themselves  no  concern  about  the  much  n-ore  serious  de- 
filement that  lodged  within;  so  that,  while  it  was  counted  a 
sin  of  dark  enormity  to  neglect  an  appointed  washiny  of  the 
hands,  anger  and  malice  and  every  impure  affection  were 
allowed  and  indulged  with  little  or  no  sense  of  their  offensive 
nature;  and  it  was  even  taught,  that  the  commandments  of 
God  had  respect  only  to  the  grosser  forms  of  the  evils  they 
condemned,  as  if  the  secret  workings  of  the  soul  came  not 
equally  under  the  eye  of  the  Almighty,  or  the  fountains  <./ 


LIBL1CAL    ANTIQUITIES.  423 

;uiquity  might  have  less  odiousness  in  his  sijjht  than  thn 
streams  that  carried  their  pollution  abroad.  (Matt.  v.  21 — 24, 
27 — oO.  xi. .  7,  xv.  1 — 14,  Luke  vi.  7 — 11.) 

Though  all  the  Pharisees  maintained  a  general  feeling  of  re- 
gard for  each  other,  as  members  of  one  and  the  same  sect,  they 
were  not  at  the  same  time  without  differences  of  sentiment  and 
practice  among  themselves,  such  as  divided  them  into  various 
subordinate  parties.  Tradition  tells  us,  that  there  were  as 
many  as  seven  regular  classes  of  them,  which  were  distinguished 
from  each  other  with  no  inconsiderable  unlikeness,  and  aimed 
at  very  various  degrees  of  perfection.  Mention  has  already 
been  made,  in  a  different  part  of  this  work,  of  the  6r'«//A'<.».s, 
who  sprung,  in  a  great  measure,  out  of  this  sect  about  the 
twelfth  year  of  our  Saviour's  life  :  they  became  a  separate  sect, 
distinguished  more  for  their  notions  about  government,  or  rather 
for  their  violence  in  urging  into  practice  the  general  notion  of 
the  Pharisees  on  this  subject,  than  for  any  thing  else. 


SECTION    II. 
THE    SADDUCEES. 

ACCORDING  to  the  common  account  of  its  origin,  this  sect 
took  its  rise  between  two  and  three  hundred  years  before  the 
birth  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  derived  its  name,  it  is  said,  from 
one  Sadoc,  a  disciple  of  one  of  the  most  celebrated  teachers  of 
the  age,  who  fell  into  what  became  afterwards  its  principal 
error,  by  mistaking  or  abusing  the  sense  of  a  particular  doc- 
trine  incviiated  by  his  master.  That  distinguished  man  had 
taught  tl'Pt  the  service  of  God  and  the  practice  of  virtue 
ought  to  be  disinterested,  as  being  in  their  own  nature  excellent 
and  reasonable  in  the  highest  degree ;  and  that  it  was  not  pro- 
per, accordingly,  to  employ  mercenary  considerations,  as  he 
represented  them,  the  fear  of  future  p  mishment,  or  the  hope 
of  future  reward,  as  motives  to  persuaue  men  to  a  life  of  piety. 
He  did  not  say.  however,  or  mean  at  all,  that  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments were  not  to  be  expected  in  a  future  state  :  but  Sadoo 
and  another  of  his  scholars  carried  out  his  doctrine  to  the  full 
point  of  this  pernicious  consequence,  and  publicly  maintained. 
in  their  subsequent  career,  that  the  idea  of  a  world  to  come 
was  a  dr  am,  and  that  the  soul  was  destined  to  sink  int  an 
eternal  sleep  with  the  ruin  of  the  body — if  sou/  it  might  b« 
(jailed,  which  was  not  allowed  to  have  any  independent  exist 
i;uce,  or  U>  be  capable  of  separation  from  the  material 


424  blBMCAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ration  to  which  it  belonged.  Contrary  as  the  infidel  sontin  ot 
wan  to  the  word  of  God,  it  did  not  fail  to  find  some  consi  ar- 
able reception,  and  to  perpetuate  itself  a*  a  principal  article 
in  the  creed  of  a  distinct  and  important  sect,  even  while  the 
Scriptures  were  as  universally  as  ever  acknowledged  to  be  of 
Divine  original  and  authority  :  for  what  inconsistency  and  extra- 
vagance will  not  the  human  mind,  in  its  depravity,  consent  to, 
for  the  purpose  of  covering  from  its  sight  the  awfulm-ss  of 
tiuth  and  shielding  its  impenitent  slumbers  from  interruption 
within  the  dark  and  thickly  embowered  refuges  of  error? 
The  wealthy,  the  honourable,  and  the  fashionable  of  the  world — 
who,  in  every  age,  are  tempted  to  seek  for  themselves  anxeasy 
and  genteel  religion,  that  will  agree  to  tolerate  with  widest 
liberality  the  manners  and  spirit  of  the  earth,  and  to  administer 
withal  encouragement  and  (juiet  to  the  unregenerate  conscience 
gazing  forward  upon  the  future — were  not  displeased,  of  course, 
with  the  doctrine  of  Sadoc ;  and  still  as  the  number  of  his  fol- 
lowers multiplied,  and  Motored  to  themselves  some  name  and 
reputation  among  men,  it  assumed,  in  their  eyes,  a  more  rea- 
sonable and  engaging  aspect,  and  was  found  to  bring  upon  their 
hearts  arguments  irresistible  in  its  favour,  till  at  length  the 
wealthy,  the  great,  and  the  fashionable  of  the  land  were,  in  a 
large  measure,  gathered  into  the  sect  of  the  Sadducees. 

Because  of  the  worldly  importance,  therefore,  of  most  of  its 
members,  though  in  point  of  numbers  it  bore  no  comparison 
with  that  of  the  Pharisees,  it  was  a  sect  of  considerable  in- 
fluence in  the  state.  It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  they 
took,  generally,  much  part  in  the  public  affairs  of  the  nation  : 
the  Pharisees  had  an  influence  among  the  people,  which  always 
secured  to  their  sect  the  chief  authority  in  the  government, 
ana  against  which  it  was  vain  to  contend;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  the  .Sadducces  seem  to  have  been,  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent, of  the  opinion  that  life  might  be  enjoyed,  on  the  whole, 
full  a.s  well,  if  not  better,  in  the  easy  luxury  of  a  private  con- 
dition, crowded  with  all  manner  of  worldly  pleasures,  as  amid 
the  cares  of  office  and  the  drudgery  of  public  service.  Still, 
they  were  not  excluded,  by  any  means,  nor  did  they  withdraw 
themselves  altogether,  from  places  of  trust  and  power  :  some 
of  their  number  occupied,  at  times,  the  highest  offices  in  the 
Htatc ;  yea,  more  than  once,  the  mitre  of  the  high-priest 
itself  was  allowed  to  encircle  the  brow  of  an  infidel  Sadducee  ' 
In  such  cases,  however,  they  were  under  the  necessity  of  coin 
plying,  in  a  great  measure,  with  the  views  and  wishes  of  the 
Pharisees,  since  they  would  not  otherwise  have  beeu  tolerated 
jy  the  people. 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  425 

We  fiiiQ  the  great  error  of  the  sect  noticed  in  the  Now  Tcs- 
.uncut;  they  maintained,  we  are  told,  "that  there  is  uo  re. 
uirrection,  neither  angel  nor  spirit."  (Matt.  xxii.  1*3,  Act? 
ixiii.  8.)  From  other  authority  we  learn,  that  they  erred  also 
on  the  subject  of  the  overruling  providence  of  God  :  they 
thought  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Pharisees,  which  represented 
all  events  to  be  certain,  as  much  before  they  come  to  pass  as 
they  are  afterwards,  according  to  the  wise  and  eternal  determi- 
nation of  Hin?  who  contrived,  constructed,  and  continually  sus- 
tains the  vast  machinery  of  the  universe,  was  not  compatible 
with  that  freedom  of  will  and  action  of  which  every  moral 
being  is  conscious ;  and  they  professed  to  believe,  accordingly, 
that  no  such  certainty  exists ;  but  that  the  affairs  of  the  world, 
at  least  so  far  as  they  are  connected  directly  or  indirectly  with 
the  actions  of  men,  proceed  in  a  way  of  liberty  so  absolute  as 
to  be  entirely  uninfluenced  by  Divine  will,  and  utterly  inde- 
pendent of  Divine  direction.  Thus,  in  their  zeal  to  escape  the 
dogma  of  fatal  necessity,  and  while  they  attempted  to  com- 
mit the  reins  of  every  man's  destiny  as  much  as  possible  into 
his  own  hands,  they  thrust  God,  in  their  doctrine,  from  the 
throne  of  the  universe,  divested  him  in  part  of  his  glorious: 
perfections,  and  delivered  the  whole  order  of  the  world  to  the 
government  of  chance — if  <>rd<-r  that  might  be  called,  which 
reason  or  rule  could  have  none,  but  must,  according  to  the  idea 
of  its  highest  perfection,  unfold  its  series  of  events  from  day 
to  day,  altogether  without  determinate  principle,  and  uncon- 
strained by  a  single  fixed  or  systematic  influence. 

If,  in  the  points  that  have  been  mentioned,  the  ciccd  of  the 
Sadducees  was  sadly  erroneous,  when  compared  with  that  of 
the  Pharisees,  it  was  greatly  to  be  preferred  to  it  in  the  re- 
spect which  it  showed  for  the  written  word  of  God.  It  rejected 
altogether  the  authority  of  that  oral  law  of  which  the  Phari 
made  so  wicked  a  use,  and  rightly  insisted  that  the  Scrip 
tures,  of  themselves,  were  abundantly  sufficient  to  direct  the 
faith  and  practice  of  men ;  that  they  ought  to  be  received  as 
the  only  infallible  revelation  of  God's  will;  and  that  to  allow 
any  tradition  whatever  an  equal  sacr  jdncss,  was  presumptuous 
and  profane.  It  has  been  suspected  by  some,  that  while  it 
thus  laudably  trampled  under  foot  the  traditions  of  the  elders, 
:t  covered  the  merit  of  that  zeal  with  shame  as  great  by  pro- 
ceeding yet  farther  to  disclaim  a  large  part  of  the  Bible  itself; 
refusing  to  acknowledge  as  the  word  of  God  any  thing  more 
than  the  pcntateuch,  or  five  books  of  Moses,  after  the  manner 
of  the  Samaritai.s,  with  whom  Sadoc,  it  is  said,  took  refuge  t'<>> 
a  time,  to  escape  the  displeasure  of  his  own  couulryuieu, 


420  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

he  first  l>egan  to  publish  his  doctrine.  This  idea,  it  vaunt  bt 
acknowledged)  semis  to  have  no  small  weight  of  probability 
ill  its  favour,  from  the  consideration  that  tin-re  is  ,-ueh  eleai 
Contradiction  to  the  leading  .sentiment  of  the  Saddneee  sect, 
in  other  parts  of  Scripture,  as  it  is  hard  to  see  how  they  conlii 
get  along  with  it  at  all,  unless  by  rejecting  the  'vhole ;  and  it 
Appears,  moreover,  to  derive  indirect  confirmation  from  tin; 
f.ict,  that  our  Saviour,  when  he  urged  the  authority  of  God'* 
word  against  their  doctrine,  on  a  certain  occasion,  drew  his 
argument  only  from  the  pentateuch,  when  he  might  have 
b.-ought  more  direct  and  explicit  testimony,  as  it  would  seem, 
from  other  portions  of  revelation,  if  all  the  Jewish  Bible  had 
been  received  by  those  whom  he  undertook  to  convince  of 
i  rn>r.  (Matt.  xxii.  31,  32.)  Still,  it  is  an  idoa  unsupported 
by  any  positive  evidence  whatever ;  and,  more  than  this,  it  is 
pretty  clearly  discovered  to  be  erroneous,  from  the  use  that  is 
found,  out  of  the  Jewish  writings,  to  have  been  made  in  con- 
troversy with  the  Sadducees,  of  other  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, besides  those  of  Moses,  and  even  by  the  sect  itself,  in 
support  of  its  own  opinions,  while  no  charge  of  rejecting  any 
part  of  revelation  is  ever  urged  against  them. 

The  Sadducees  are  represented  to  have  been  characterized, 
in  general,  by  a  selfish  and  unsociable  spirit.  Without  much 
sectarian  interest  to  knit  them  in  friendly  union  among  them- 
selves, they  felt  still  less  regard  for  other  members  of  the 
community;  and  as,  according  to  their  system,  the  man  who 
secured  for  himself  the  greatest  amount  of  personal  enjoyment 
in  this  present  world  was  supposed  to  make  the  best  use  of 
life,  they  appear  to  have  contracted  the  sympathies  of  their 
nature  within  a  narrow  compass,  and  to  have  made  it  tlieir 
great  concern  to  fill  their  own  houses  with  comfort  and  pleasure 
and  to  shut  out  from  them  the  Bound  of  sorrow,  deliberately 
closing  their  hearts  against  all  the  gentle  powers  of  charity, 
and  leaving  all  the  rest  of  the  world  to  their  fortune,  evil  01 
happy,  with  cold  and  careless  indifference.  The  poor,  and 
especially  the  unfortunate,  were  excluded  from  their  favourable 
regard :  they  overlooked  them  with  unfeeling  neglect.  It 
may  be,  however,  that  calumny  has  flung  a  darker  colouring 
over  the  picture  of  the  Sadducee  character,  in  this  respect, 
than  the  original  ever  gave  reason  for. 

The  sect  of  the  Sadducees,  it  seems,  did  not  retain  much  of 
its  importance  long  after  the  destruction  of  the  temple  and 
the  state.  It  shrunk  at  last  into  insignificance,  and  expired ; 
while  that  of  the  Pharisees  continually  diffused  and  strengthened 
tin  authority  of  its  creed,  till  in  the  end,  though  its  name  hat 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  4*27 

a  out  of  use,  it*  *?»/////< •///>•  have  become  the  almost  unani- 
mous faith  of  the  whole  Jewish  people.  There  is  still,  how- 
over,  a  little  sect — a  very  little  one — that  dares  to  dissent 
from  the  general  body,  and  rejeet,  like  the  Sadducees  of  old, 
the  whole  system  of  traditions,  acknowledging  only  the  written 
irord  to  be  of  supreme  and  Divine  authority,  in  every  (juestinn 
of  religious  faith  or  practice.  It  has  been  imagined  by  some, 
that  it  ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  feeble  remnant  of  the 
ancieut  sect  of  Sadoc  itself,  still  struggling  to  sustain  it 
after  so  many  centuries,  amid  the  triumphs  of  it.s  rival;  but 
since  it  disclaims  altogether  the  Sadducee  infidelity,  admitting 
the  existence  of  angels,  and  allowing  the  reality  of  a  future 
state,  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  to  derive  it  from  so 
foul  an  original.  The  sect  of  the  Caraites  (for  so  they  are 
called)  has  been  in  existence  more  than  a  thousand  years,  all 
along  bearing  witness  for  the  true  word  of  God,  against  the 
overwhelming  influence  of  the  Ritltlthiisls,  as  the  party  that 
embraces  the  Pharisee  doctrine  of  traditions  has  come  to  be 
denominated,  and  endeavouring  to  retain,  in  their  little  body, 
some  image  of  the  ancient  faith  of  Israel,  amid  the  melancholy 
rubbish  of  superstition  and  corruption  that  is  Dithered  upon 
the  ruins  of  their  national  religion. 


SECTION  III. 

THE    ESSENES. 

THE  Exsenes  are  not  noticed  in  the  New  Testament:  for 
although  their  sect  was  in  as  flourishing  a  state  in  the  days  of 
our  Saviour  as  it  ever  was  at  any  time,  yet  their  manner  of 
life  separated  them  in  a  great  measure  from  the  scenes  of  his 
ministry,  and  cut  them  off  from  all  connection  with  the  in- 
teresting events  of  his  history.  All  our  knowledge  of  this 
remarkable  class  of  Jews,  accordingly,  is  derived  from  other 
sources  j  not,  however,  through  the  streams  of  uncertain  tra- 
dition, as  in  some  other  cases  we  ale  compelled  to  derive  in- 
formation from  the  distant  region  of  antiquity,  but  by  the 
testimony  of  authentic  history,  conveyed  in  sure  and  regulai 
channels  over  all  the  intervening  waste  of  time. 

The  Essenes  lived  together  in  separate  societies  of  their 
own,  withdrawing  tin  mselves  altogether  from  public  cares, 
refusing  to  participate  in  the  general  employments  and  interest* 
of  the  world,  and  adopting  for  their  habitual  use  a  system  of 
principles  and  manners  so  utterly  diverse  from  all  the  coimnor 


«28  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

plan  of  life  around  them,  that  it  became  completely  impract* 
a-able  for  them  to  mingle  in  any  free  intercourse  with  the  H-M 
of  the  nation:  they  constituted,  in  short,  an  order  of  monks; 
were  led,  by  religious  feeling,  to  tear  themselves  away  from 
the  whirlpool  of  society,  so  full  of  danger  to  the  soul,  and  so 
fatal  to  almost  all  that  move  within  its  sweep,  and  to  work  out 
in  retirement,  with  rigorous  diligence,  the  great  and  arduoui 
preparation  for  a  world  to  come,  for  which,  supremely,  the 
tri;il  of  human  life  is  allowed  to  every  child  of  Adam.  They 
considered  the  business  of  piety  so  important,  that  it  called 
for  the  continual,  and  as  far  as  possible  for  the  r /•<•///. -/>••.  caro 
of  every  person  that  hoped  to  secure  its  blessings ;  and  they 
looked  upon  the  world,  at  the  same  time,  as  so  contrary,  in  all 
its  influence,  to  the  spirit  of  devotion — and  upon  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  human  heart,  as  so  disposed  through  moral  de- 
rangement to  yield  to  tins  influence,  and  so  almost  inevitably 
liable  to  lead  to  ruin  and  death,  when  allowed  to  proceed  in 
any  measure  according  to  its  natural  operation, — that  it  seemed 
to  them  the  wisest  and  the  only  safe  course  to  seek  security 
by  Jfi/ini/,  as  far  as  it  was  in  their  power,  from  the  vantage- 
ground  of  the  enemy,  and  by  making  it  the  painful  toil  of  life 
to  extinguish  or  eradicate,  by  self-denial  and  mortification  of 
the  body,  the  treacherous  principles  of  evil  that  lodged  in  their 
own  bosoms.  It  was  the  same  way  of  thinking,  which,  in  later 
times,  carried  many  a  Christian  hermit  away  from  the  tumult 
of  society,  to  take  up  his  lonely  dwell'ng  in  the  wilderness  or 
the  mountain  cave,  and  in  the  end  erected  the  monastery  and 
the  nunnery  in  every  district  of  the  church. 

It  has  been  conjectured,  that  this  third  Jewish  sect  had  its 
origin  in  Egypt,  where  so  large  a  body  of  the  nation  came  to 
be  settled  under  the  second  temple :  an  idea  that  gathers  some 
plausibility  from  the  consideration,  that  the  climate  of  that 
country  has  always  been  peculiarly  adapted  to  create  and 
cherish  such  a  temper  of  mind  as  disposes  persons  to  the  sort 
of  feeling  and  the  manner  of  life  that  monkery  requires.  At 
any  rate,  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  s<  et,  which 
altogether,  of  course,  wits  quite  small,  was  found  in  Egypt; 
mil  it  was  that  part  of  it,  too,  which  carried  to  the  most  rigor- 
ous extreme  the  principles  of  its  constitution.  They  had  some 
little  societies  also  in  other  countries,  into  which  the  Jews 
were  dispersed :  but  still  their  chief  strength  was  at  last  in 
Palestine  itself,  where,  we  are  told,  about  four  thousand  of 
them  resided,  principally  upon  the  western  shore  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  These  last  were  in  several  respects  less  rigid  than  their 
brethren  of  Egypt,  not  thinking  it  necessary  to  retire  90  com- 


BIBLICAL    AXTIQUIT.'ES.  420 

pUtely  from  the  midst  of  ordinary  life,  and  not  caring  to  cut 
themselves  olT,  to  the  same  extent,  from  its  common  pursuits. 
Ileuce  tne  sect  consisted  properly  of  two  classes  of  members, 
viz.  the  practical  Essenes,  who  were  found  for  the  most  par* 
iu  Palestine;  and  t\ie*cont>-injiftitice  Essencs,  who  had  their 
resilience  especially  in  Egypt.  The  name  h'ssents  was  appro 
priated,  in  a  great  measure,  altogether  to  the  practical  clasa 
iu  Judea,  while  those  in  Egypt  were  styled  Tfterapeutca ;  the 
last  name,  however,  is  only  the  first  one  translated  into  Greek, 
and  both  mean  Physicians ;  a  title  which  the  sect  assumed, 
not  so  much  on  account  of  any  acquaintance  with  the  art  of 
healing  bodily  diseases,  which  some  of  them  might  have  hud, 
as  because  they  made  the  health  of  the  soul  their  great  care, 
and  professed  to  cure  its  infinitely  more  dangerous  maladies. 

The  Essenes  of  Palestine,  although  they  deemed  it  advi.-al>lo 
to  keep  at  a  distance  from  large  cities,  had  no  objection  to  liv- 
ing in  towns  and  villages,  and  were  accustomed  not  only  to 
pay  some  attention  to  agriculture,  but  to  practise  certain  arts 
al»o,  taking  care  only  to  avoid  such  as  contribute  in  any  way 
to  the  purposes  of  war  and  mischief.  They  held  all  their  pro- 
perty in  common,  living,  wherever  they  were  found,  in  societies 
by  themselves,  uniting  the  fruits  of  their  labour  in  one  stock, 
and  all  receiving  out  of  it  whatever  they  needed  for  the  support 
and  comfort  of  life.  Their  wants,  at  the  same  time,  were  not 
such  as  were  very  difficult  to  be  supplied  :  their  clothing  was 
all  of  the  plainest  kind,  and  no  one  thought  of  having  more 
than  a  single  suit  at  once,  which  he  wore  till  it  was  worn  "ii:  : 
their  food  was  at  all  times  simple  in  the  extreme,  a  pure  of 
bread  and  a  plate  of  soup  being  the  ordinary  portion  of  every 
individual,  at  their  principal  meal  :  their  houses  were  humble, 
and  altogether  without  ornament :  their  whole  manner  of  lite, 
in  short,  was  after  the  most  frigal  and  unrefined  style;  for  it 
was  their  opinion,  that  only  th  real  wants  of  nature  should  be 
regarded  in  the  provision  that  is  made  for  the  accommodation 
of  our  bodies  in  this  world;  and  that  every  sort  of  luxury  aii-1 
pleasure  of  mere  sense,  being  suited  only  to  strengthen  the  baser 
principles  of  our  nature,  and  to  hinder  the  soul  iu  its  attempt 
to  emancipate  itself  from  the  dominion  of  the  flesh,  ought  t< 
be  dreaded  and  avoided  with  the  most  anxious  care.  Com 
ni'-ree,  aeeordingly,  as  designed  to  minister  only  to  the  unnatural 
and  unreasonable  appetites  of  m  n,  they  eon.sideivd  altogether 
an  unlawful  employment.  They  made  no  use  of  wine:  they 
held  war  to  lie  in  all  eases  .-infnl,  and  every  art  also  that  w;i» 
designed  i<>  lie  siibsenieni  to  its  interests;  \et  when  they  tra- 
velled, th;y  thought  it  not  impruuer  to  carry  weapons,  iuorde.r  «« 


430  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

protect  themselves  from  the  robbers  that  abounded  through  the 
•I'lintry  :  they  held  slavery  under  any  form  to  be  contrary  to 
nature  and  reason  ;  they  did  not  approve  of  oaths,  and  made 
no  use  of  them,  except  when  they  became  members  of  the  socic 
ty ;  on  which  occasion,  having  previously  lived  on  trial  for  the 
space  of  two  years,  every  one  who  joined  them  was  required  to 
bind  himself  in  the  most  solemn  manner  to  love  and  worship 
Hod,  to  deal  justly  with  all  men,  to  abstain  from  doing  harm 
to  any  creature,  &c.  ;  and  yet  they  were  remarkable  for  their 
strict  regard  to  truth  in  all  the  conceins  <if  life  ;  insomuch  that 
the  word  of  an  Essene  was  allowed  by  all  that  had  any  know- 
ledge  of  them,  to  be  worth  full  as  much  as  the  with  of  another 
man.  They  did  not  think  it  wrong  to  marry,  and  some  of  them, 
accordingly,  consented  to  make  the  experiment  of  wedlock  ;  but 
it  was  considered  to  have  so  much  hazard  in  it  that  a  single 
state  was  esteemed  to  be  more  desirable.  In  their  religious 
duties  they  were  remarkably  strict  and  regular:  in  the  morn- 
ing, they  never  uttered  a  word  about  common  business  before 
the  rising  of  the  sun,  (the  sun  never  found  any  of  them  in  bed 
of  course,)  but  occupied  themselves  till  that  time  with  their 
prayers:  after  this  duty  of  devotion,  they  all  went  to  their 
several  employments  :  about  eleven  o'clock,  they  left  their 
work,  washed  themselves  with  cold  water,  retired  for  a  while  to 
their  several  cells,  or  apartments,  and  then  assembled  in  their 
dining  room  to  partake  of  their  plain  meal  of  bread  and  soup; 
the  afternoon  called  them  again  t/<  their  work,  and  when  it  was 
over,  brought  them  a  second  tin  s  round  their  common  table, 
spread  with  a  supper  of  the  most  frugal  sort,  after  which  each 
withdrew  to  attend  to  his  evening  prayers  :  at  the  commence- 
m  jnt  and  the  close  of  every  meal  a  short  prayer  was  addressed 
to  God,  as  the  author  of  the  blessing.  The  !Sabbath  they  kept 
BO  carefully  that  they  would  not  so  much  as  move  a  dish  in  the 
house  during  the  whole  of  it,  lest  it  should  be  a  violation  of  its 
holy  rest ;  and  besides  attending  to  private  religious  duties,  they 
regularly  met  on  that  day  for  public  worship  in  synagogues, 
which  they  had  of  their  own,  where  the  Scriptures  were  read, 
•ind  explained  by  such  among  them  as  by  reason  of  age  and  un- 
derstanding were  best  qualiiied  for  the  task.  When  any  mem 
her  was  found  guilty  of  gross  crime,  or  unfaithful  to  his  profes- 
sion, they  cut  him  off  entirely  from  their  society. 

The  Therapeutae  of  Egypt  differed  from  the  Essenes  of  Pa 
lestine  only  in  being  more  rigidly  severe  in  their  manner  of 
life.  They  withdrew  from  the  midst  of  the  common  world 
Altogether,  and  gave  themselves  up  almost  entirely  to  solitude 
and  contemplation  TUose  who  joined  thorn  did  not  bring 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  431 

their  property  along  with  them  and  put  it  into  the  common 
stock,  as  was  usual  with  the  Essenes,  but  leaving  it  all  to  their 
friends  whom  they  felt  it  their  duty  utterly  to  forsake,  they 
came  into  the  society  unburdened  with  a  particle  of  ita  care. 
Marriage  was  not  in  use  among  them  at  all.  Their  diet  wa* 
merely  coarse  bread  and  salt,  accompanied  sometimes  with  a 
little  hyssop,  and  the  only  drink  they  allowed  themselves  wa» 
water;  nor  did  they  indulge  themselves  with  even  this  scanty 
fare,  except  in  the  most  sparing  manner,  making  it  their  daily 
practice  not  to  taste  any  food  before  sunset,  because  they 
thought  the  day  should  all  be  appropriated  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  soul  by  meditation  and  study,  aud  that  the  night  alone 
ought  to  be  employed  in  satisfying  the  necessities  of  the  body — 
and  little  enough  even  of  that  was  needed  for  this  purpose  in 
their  self-denying  and  abstemious  manner  of  life ;  some  of 
them,  it  is  said,  used  to  become  so  absorbed  in  their  contem- 
plations, and  so  engrossed  with  their  pursuit  of  wisdom,  that 
they  forgot  to  take  their  food  even  at  the  close  of  the  day,  and 
at  times  for  as  much  as  three  whole  days  together — yea,  in 
some  instances,  a  whole  week  was  passed  almost  without  eating 
at  all — so  wonderfully  did  the  entertainment  with  which  the 
mind  was  fed  in  the  banqueting  house  of  Philosophy,  enable 
them  to  dispense  with  the  grosser  aliment  that  is  appointed  to 
invigorate  and  sustain  our  animal  nature !  The  women — for 
there  were  such  belonging  to  the  society — never  came  into 
company  with  the  men,  (who  themselves,  in  fact,  lived  every 
one  separate  from  the  rest  almost  all  the  week,)  except  on  the 
Sabbath,  when  they  assembled  with  them  in  the  synagogue, 
though  in  a  distinct  part  of  the  house,  cut  off  by  a  wall  of 
some  height  from  that  which  the  rest  of  the  congregation  occu- 
pied ;  and  also  at  the  common  table  which  it  was  the  custom 
to  spread  on  the  evening  of  that  sacred  day  for  their  whole 
company  to  partake  together.  In  their  worship,  they  made 
much  of  hymns,  and  on  certain  occasions  joined  in  sacred 
dances. 

The  whole  sect  agreed  with  the  Pharisees  in  their  belief  of 
the  existence  of  spirits  and  the  immortality  of  the  human 
0oul,  aud  seem  also  to  have  entertained  the  sa;ne  general  idea 
of  God's  sovereign  providence  in  the  government  of  the  world. 
They  denied,  however,  the  resurrection  of  the  body ;  and  a& 
thvy  looked  upon  it  as  the  ohief  hiuderance  to  virtue  and  wis- 
dom in  this  present  state,  and  made  it,  accordingly,  their  jrreai 
care  to  mortify  all  its  natural  appetites  while  lodged  in  it* 
fleshly  prison,  it  did  not  seem  to  them  desirable  at  all  to  have 
it  recovered  from  its  ruius ;  or  rather  the  thought  of  shutting 


482  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

ap  the  emancipated  spirit  a  second  time  within  its  walls  wui; 
utterly  at  variance  with  their  whole  notion  of  the  blesi.ednes.- 
of  that  future  state  to  which  they  looked  forward.  They  did 
not  receive,  it  seems,  the  trn<liti>nniri/  law  .»f  the  Pharisees; 
but,  while  they  acknowledged  the  written  word  of  (IIK!  to  In- 
the  only  infallible  rule  of  religion,  they  made  use  of  a  fain  it'u! 
sort  of  interpretation  ill  explaining  it,  which  subjected  it,  after 
all,  to  the  authority  of  human  opinions,  and  opened  a  door  foi 
the  introduction  of  all  manner  of  error:  they  held  that  the 
Scriptures,  besides  the  direct  and  natural  sense  of  their  language, 
have  a  deeper  and  more  important  meaning,  mystically  buried 
in  that  first  one,  which  alone  constitutes  the  true  heavenly 
wisdom  of  their  pages,  and  merits  the  continual  study  of  all 
that  aspire  after  the  perfection  to  which  they  are  appointed  to 
guide  the  soul;  and  this  meaning,  accordingly,  their  teachers 
pretended  to  search  out  and  bring  forward,  in  their  use  of  the 
eacred  volume,  turning  it  all  into  allegory,  and  so  constraining 
it  to  speak,  under  the  powerful  control  of  fancy,  whatever 
mystic  sense  they  pleased.  They  did  not  bring  *<tcriji<->x  to 
the  temple,  as  the  law  required ;  and  the  Therapeutic,  it  seems, 
disapproved  of  bloody  sacrifices  altogether;  the  !•;>-  n«  s  of  Pa- 
lestine, however,  admitted  the  propriety  of  such  offerings,  and 
used  to  present  them  from  time  to  time,  in  a  solemn  manner, 
among  themselves;  but  with  peculiar  rites,  altogether  different 
from  those  which  the  law  appointed.  They  were  presented, 
it  appears,  on  the  occasions  of  their  great  solemnities,  in  th( 
»/<//</,  after  the  day  had  first  been  observed  as  a  fast,  and  were 
always  wfwlty  burned,  together  with  much  h»ney  and  wim'.  It 
is  not  improbable  that  the  strange  rites  which  they  made  use 
of  occasioned  their  separation  from  the  temple ;  since,  even  if 
they  had  been  disposed  to  offer  sacrifices  in  their  way  at  that 
place,  it  would  have  been  wrong  for  the  priests  to  give  then? 
permission. 


SECTION  IV. 

THE   SAMARITANS. 

THE  SAMARITANS,  though  accounted  as  little  better  than 
idolaters  outright  by  the  Jews,  and  though  actually  cut  off 
from  the  sacred  commonwealth  of  Israel,  may,  nevertheless, 
be  looked  upon  as,  in  some  sense,  a  Jewish  sect;  since  they  not 
only  had  their  origin,  in  some  degree,  from  the  holy  stock,  but 
received  the  law  of  Moses  as  the  rule  of  all  their  religion,  and 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  433 

looked  forward  to  the  hopes  of  the  Jewish  church  with  all  the 
confidence  that  was  cherished  by  any  of  its  tribes. 

We  have  an  account  of  their  origin  in  the  17th  chapter  of 
the  second  book  of  Kings.  The  king  (if  Assyria,  according  to 
the  cruel  policy  of  that  ar.cient  age,  carried  the  great  body  of 
the  ten  tribes  away  into  a  distant  land,  and  settled  their  coun- 
try with  a  colony  of  heathen  strangers — a  mixed  multitude 
from  (Juthah,  Ava,  Uamath,  and  Sepharvairn,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Euphrates.  These  gradually  amalgamated  with 
each  other,  and  with  such  of  the  Israelites  as  were  still  left  in 
the  land,  so  as  to  form  a  single  people,  who  came  to  be  called, 
from  the  name  of  their  principal  city,  Samm-itim*.  At  first, 
they  worshipped  only  the  false  gods  of  their  native  countries, 
but  being  chastised  by  the  Lord  in  a  remarkable  way,  they 
were  led  to  desire  some  knowledge  of  the  God  of  Israel  and 
the  manner  of  his  worship,  and  gladly  received  to  instruct 
them  one  of  the  captive  priests  of  Israel  whom  the  Assyrian 
king  sent  back  from  Babylon  for  the  purpose :  but  they  had 
no  idea  still  of  giving  up  entirely  their  old  idols;  they  fool- 
ishly thought  that  every  country  had  its  particular  gods ;  that 
the  God  of  Israel  was  only  one  of  the  multitude  among  whom 
the  earth  was  divided ;  and  that,  although  it  was  unsafe  to 
neglect  him  altogether  in  his  own  territory,  there  could  be  no 
impropriety,  having  now  learned  the  manner  of  his  worship, 
and  being  careful  to  show  hiir.  respect  and  fear  according  to 
his  appointed  way,  in  showing  honour,  at  the  same  time,  to 
other  deities,  and  in  mingling  with  their  new  religion,  as  they 
might  please,  the  miserable  idolatry  of  their  fathers ;  so  they 
/eared  tlie  Lord  after  their  own  notion,  and  served  their  idol 
gods  at  the  same  time.  In  time,  however,  a  more  correct  no- 
tion of  religion  began  to  gain  ground  ;  and  at  length,  after  the 
Jewish  captivity,  idolatry  disappeared  from  among  them  alto 
gether. 

When  the  Jews,  on  their  return,  began  to  rebuild  their  tem- 
ple, the  Samaritans  sought  to  associate  themselves  with  them 
in  the  work  ;  but  that  people  would  not  consent  at  all  to  the 
proposal,  perceiving  that  they  were  actuated  by  no  good  mo- 
tives in  urging  it,  and  that,  notwithstanding  their  fair  profes- 
sions, they  had  still  little  regard  for  the  true  religion,  and  were 
still  in  love  with  their  idolatry.  This  refusal  filled  the  Samari- 
tans with  rage,  and  led  them  to  use  every  means  in  their  powei 
to  hinder  the  building  of  the  temple ;  in  which  attempts  they 
were  so  successful,  that  the  work  was  interrupted  directly  aftei 
ite  commencement,  with  a  delay  of  full  fifteen  years.  (Ezra, 

4th,  5th,  and  O'th  chapters.)     The  minds  of  the   Jews  wer«. 

87 


434  BIBLICAL    ANTIQt  IT1ES. 

of  crmise,  gieatly  embittered  against  them  by  this  opposition, 
mid  the  enmity  was  still  more  increased  by  the  malicious  arts 
which  they  afterwards  employed  to  prevent  Nehemiah  from  re- 
storing tlif  walls  of  Jerusalem.  (Neh.  4th  and  Gth  chapters.) 

\Vlirn  Nehemiah  undertook  to  reform  the  abuses  that  existed 
among  the  Jews,  and  among  other  things,  required  them  to 
put  away  their  strange  wives,  Manas,seh,  the  son  of  the  high- 
priest  who  had  married  a  daughter  of  Sanhallat,  prince  of  the 
Samaritans,  refused  to  comply  with  the  order,  and  being  com- 
pelled to  quit  his  own  people,  sought  refuge  with  his  father-in- 
law.  (Neh.  xiii.  28.)  Sanballat,  taking  that  advantage  of  the 
circumstances  which  he  t  IK  night  would  be  most  offensive  to 
the  Jews,  obtained  permission  from  the  Persian  monarch, 
erected  a  NEW  TUMPLK  on  mount  Geriziln,  and  constituted  his 
son-in-law  the  father  of  its  priesthood.  Thus  a  regular  system 
of  national  worship,  corresponding  in  all  respects  to  that  of 
the  true  people  of  God,  was  established,  and  every  vestige  of 
the  former  idolatry  became  obliterated  from  the  land.  After 
this,  it  wa.s  usual  for  such  Jews  as  In-came  exposed  to  punish- 
ment in  their  own  country  for  violating  its  laws,  or  wer*> 
excommunicated  for  their  offences  from  religious  and  socia) 
privileges,  to  betake  themselves,  for  security  or  relief,  to  th? 
Samaritans,  among  whom  they  were  received  without  difficulty 
In  this  way,  the  jealousy  and  enmity  of  the  two  people,  instead 
of  wearing  away  with  time,  gathered  continually  fresh  encou 
ragement  and  renewed  vigour.  During  the  persecution  ol 
Antiochus  Epiphanes — that  enemy  of  all  righteousness  and 
truth — the  Samaritans,  caring  more  for  their  worldly  advan 
fcage  than  for  their  religion,  secured  themselves  from  the  deso 
lating  storm,  by  abandoning  altogether  their  national  worship 
they  complied  with  all  the  wishes  of  the  tyrant,  cousecrateu 
their  temple  to  Jupiter,  the  chief  of  the  heathen  gods,  ana  leu' 
their  aid  in  the  war  that  was  carried  on  against  the  Jews,  to 
reduce  them  to  the  same  apostasy.  (1  Maccabees  in.  10.) 
After  the  persecution  was  over,  they  returned  again  10  the 
religion  of  Moses;  but  their  polluted  sanctuary  was  no* 
allowed  to  stand  much  longer:  John  Hyrcanus,  the  tiiumph- 
ant  Jewish  prince,  about  l.'!0  years  before  the  time  oi  Christ. 
turned  his  arms  against  their  country,  subdued  it  completely, 
and  destroyed,  in  anger,  that  proud  temple  of  Saubahat. 

All  this,  of  course,  had  no  tendency  to  remove  the  old 
hatred  which  each  of  the  countries  cherished  for  tbe  other ;  it 
struck  its  root  still  deeper,  and  flourished  in  yet  greater  and 
more  active  luxuriance.  So  bitter  and  rancorous  did  t'.i« 
mutual  '.'iiniity  become,  that  all  intercourse  between  the  two 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES  43ft 

oat'  HIS  was  brought  to  an  end — the  Jews  ha<i  no  dealings  tcffh 
•hf  S<im<iritan* — and  it  was  even  counted  somewhat  unsafe 
for  persons  of  either  country  to  travel  through  the  territories 
>f  the  other;  or  at  least  it  was  found -so  extremely  inconvenient, 
by  reason  of  the  inhospitable  treatment  they  were  sure  to  meet 
with,  that  it  was  generally  preferred  to  avoid  it,  though  at  the 
expense  t  f  making  a  considerable  circuit  out  of  the  direct  way  ; 
whence  it  was  usual  for  the  Jews,  in  going  from  Galilee  to 
Jerusalem,  on  the  contrary,  to  cross  the  Jordan,  and  pass  along 
through  (jilead,  on  the  east  side,  rather  than  go  through  Sa- 
maria, which  lay  directly  between.  We  ought  not  to  be  sur- 
prised, therefore,  at  the  question  of  the  Samaritan  woman, 
whom  our  Lord,  oppressed  with  weariness  and  thirst,  asked  to 
give  him  some  water  at  Jacob's  well :  "  How  is  it  that  thou, 
being  a  Jew,  askest  drink  of  ine,  which  am  a  woman  of  Sa- 
maria?" (John  iv.  4 — 9.)  Nor  should  it  seem  strange,  that, 
when  Jesus,  on  another  occasion,  passing  through  that  country, 
sent  messengers  before  him  to  a  certain  v'.iage,  to  secure  en- 
tertainment for  the  night,  the  inhabit-  its  utterly  refused  to 
receive  him,  "  because  his  face  was  t\.,  though  he  would  go  to 
Jerusalem."  (Luke  ix.  51 — 5(5.)  It  appears,  however,  that 
the  same  prejudice  was  not  cherished  to  such  an  extent  among 
all  the  Samaritans ;  for  we  are  told  that  he  went  to  another 
village,  where  the  people  seem  to  have  made  no  objection  to 
his  presence ;  anil  it  was  the  common  custom  of  our  Saviour 
to  pass  through  their  country  with  his  disciples,  i.  his  jour- 
neys to  and  from  Jerusalem ;  so  that  he  must  have  still  been 
able  to  procure  among  them  such  accommodations  as  his  hum- 
ble style  of  life  required.  There  is  reason  to  believe,  in  fact, 
that  there  was,  at  this  time,  altogether  more  of  bitterness  and 
malignity  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  than  on  that  of  the  Samari- 
tans in  the  mutual  hatred  of  the  two  people,  (John  viii.  48,) 
and  that  the  Samaritan  enmity,  though  it  was  deeply  settled, 
did  not,  nevertheless,  so  thoroughly  as  the  Jewish,  crush  every 
sentiment  of  generous  humanity. under  its  weight:  this  our 
Lord  seems  to  intimate  in  that  parable  which  he  employed,  on 
a  certain  occasion,  to  answer  the  inquiry,  "  Who  is  my  neigh- 
bour ?"  (Luke  x  31 — 37)  The  readiness  with  which  the 
inhabitants  of  Sychar,  as  we  have  account  in  the  4th  chapter 

>f  John,  laid  aside  all  prejudice,  honestly  attended  to  the 
doctrine  of  Christ,  and  yielded  to  the  evidence  with  Miieh  it 
was  accompanied,  is  truly  worthy  of  our  admiration :  and  it 
nught  to  be  remembered,  that,  wh^n  ten  lepers  were,  on  me 

ccas'on,  all  healed  at  once,  while  obeying  the  direction    >f 


136  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES. 

the  Saviour,  the  only  one  of  all  their  number  who  came  back 
with  an  overflowing  heart,  to  express  his  gratitude,  and  to 
give  glory  to  God  for  the  amazing  benefit,  was  a  Samaritan 
(Luke  xvii.  12 — 19.) 

The  Samaritans  still  continued,  after  the  destruction  of  tin  11 
temple,  to  worship  on  Mount  Gerizim,  and  to  insist  as  strcnu 
ously  as  ever,  that  no  other  plaee  in  the  world  had  so  good  a 
claim  to  this  distinction.  For  they  had  been  accustnm<  d, 
since  the  days  of  Sanballat,  to  challenge  for  the  place  of  their 
sanctuary,  the  highest  measure  of  sacredness  :  they  were  not 
content  to  sustain  its  title  to  reverence  on  any  thing  short  of 
a  divine  consecration,  nor  disposed  at  all  to  seek  any  compro- 
mise with  the  pretensions  of  Moriah  ;  but  allowing  with  the 
Jews  themselves,  that  God  had  made  choice  of  only  one  place 
for  his  public  worship,  and  that  no  other,  accordingly,  ought 
ever  to  be  acknowledged,  they  boldly  maintained  that  their 
own  Gerizim  had  been,  from  the  first,  distinguished  with  the 
honour  of  this  ct  ice,  and  that  the  contrary  claim  which 
Jerusalem  urged  in  ?ivour  of  her  celebrated  hill  was  alto- 
gether unfounded  and  'also.  Here,  they  contended,  altars 
were  erected,  and  sacrifices  offered  by  Abraham  and  Jacob, 
(Gen.  xii.  6,  7,  xxxiii.  18 — 20,)  and  on  t'.iis  account,  they  said, 
the  hill  was  afterwards  appointed  by  God  himself,  to  be  the 
place  of  blessing,  when  the  Israelites  entered  the  promised 
land,  and  they  were  required  to -build  an  altar  upon  it,  and  to 
present  burnt-offerings  and  peace-offerings  there,  before  the 
Lord — by  which  direction,  it  was  affirmed,  God  clearly  signified 
that  he  had  chosen  Mount  Gerizim  to  be  the  place  where, 
according  to  his  promise,  he  would  set  his  name,  and  actually 
consecrated  it  by  a  solemn  appointment,  to  be  the  seat  of  his 
worship  in  all  future  time.  The  great  objection  to  this  argu- 
ment is,  that  when  we  consult  the  27th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy, 
in  which  we  have  the  Divine  direction  relative  to  this  matter 
recorded,  we  find  the  altar  was  ordered  to  be  set  up,  not  on 
Gerizitn,  but  on  Mount  E/*al,  which  stood  directly  over  against 
it,  (with  the  city  of  Sheckrm,  Sichem,  or  Sychar,  in  the  valley 
between,)  and  was  appointed  to  be  on  the  same  occasion  the 
hill  of  cursing.  But  in  the  Samaritan  Bible — and  they  main- 
tain their  argument,  of  course,  on  no  other  authority — the 
diffic'ilty  is  not  found;  for  instead  of  the  word  tidal,  in  the 
fourth  verse,  it  reads  C/V/-/r/w,  and  thus  at  once  alters  the 
whole  case.  It  seems,  that  the  controversy  about  the  plaee  ut 
worship  was  never  allowed  to  sleep,  but  was  that  which,  at 
til  times,  most  naturally  presented  itself,  when  the  quarre! 


BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIES.  43": 

that  existed  between  the  two  nations  came  under  consideration; 
*nd  we  find,  accordingly,  that  the  woman  of  Sychar,  when  she 
perceived  that  Jesus  was  a  prophet,  and  then  wished  to  give 
tin-  conversation  a  turn  that  might  seem  to  be  religious,  while 
it'  should  not  continue  the  disturbance  which  she  begun  to 
feel  in  her  conscience,  without  ceremony  brought  forward  this 
subject  of  dispute  :  Our  fathers  worsfu'pperf  in  fJiis  mountain, 
said  she,  pointing  to  Gerizim  close  at  hand,  and  ye,  say  that 
in  Jerusalem  is  the  place  where  men  owjht  to  worship.  Our 
Saviour,  while  he  assured  her  that  the  true  church  and  worship 
of  God  w<?re  found  among  the  Jews,  directed  her  attention  to 
that  new  dispensation  which  he  was  about  to  introduce,  in 
which  the  pomp  and  form  of  the  ceremonial  system  should 
pass  altogether  away,  and  worship  would  be  deemed  acceptable, 
not  at  all  as  it  should  rise  from  Jerusalem,  or  the  summit  of 
Gerizim,  or  any  other  particular  place,  but  only  as  it  should 
carry  on  high  the  spiritual  service  of  the  heart,  in  whatever 
part  of  the  world  it  might  be  found. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  some,  that  the  Samaritans  should 
have  considered  the  whole  controversy  about  the  place  of 
worship  decided  in  the  single  passage  of  Deuteronomy  just 
inentioiHMl,  and  should  have  not  felt  themselves  confounded 
at  all  by  various  other  passages  of  Scripture  that  clearly  de- 
cide the  question  in  favour  of  the  Jews :  but  it  is  to  be  recol- 
lected  that  their  Bible  comprehended  no  more  than  the  five 
books  of  Moses,  and  they  paid  no  respect,  accordingly,  to  any 
testimony  whatever  that  might  be  brought  forward  from 
other  parts  of  the  sacred  volume. 

There  is  still  a  very  small  remnant  of  the  Samaritan  race 
found  in  their  ancient  country.  Their  principal  residence  is  in 
that  .same  valley,  at  the  foot  of  the  sacred  mountain,  in  which, 
of  old,  the  city  of  Shechem  or  Sichem,  denominated  in  later 
times  Sychar,  (  by  the  Jews,  perhaps,  in  malignant  derision — 
for  Sychar  means  i/nm/.-i'ii,)  had  its  beautiful  retreat;  and  in 
that  same  city,  too,  though  greatly  altered  for  the  worse,  likt 
the  whole  face  of  Palestine,  from  its  ancient  state,  and  divested 
entirely  of  its  original  appellation,  instead  of  which  it  now  bears 
the  name  of  Napolose  or  Nablous.  Though  reduced  to  insig- 
nificance, for  their  whole  number,  it  is  said,  does  not  exceed 
forty,  they  still  preserve  themselves  separate  from  the  rest  of 
the  world  around  them,  and  adhere  with  the  greatest  constancy 
and  zeal  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers;  inveterate  as  ever  in  their 
opposition  to  the  Jews,  and  jealous,  as  of  old,  for  the  honour  of 
Gerizim,  on  which  they  have  a  synagogue,  01  rather  a  sort  of 

m* 


138  BIBLICAL    ANTIQUITIBi 

a  temple,  of  long  standing,  and  which  they  All  insist  is  th« 
place  where  men  ought  to  worship ;  though  they  have  not  them- 
Belves  been  allowed,  of  late  years,  by  their  Turkish  masters,  to 
Visit  ite  summit  for  that  purpose.. 


APPENDIX. 


Lift  of  the  Principal  Writers  who  have  treated  on  the  Antiqui- 
ties of  the  Scriptures. 

The  Antiquities  of  the  Hebrew  Republic.  By  Thomas  Lewis, 
M.A.  8vo,  4vols.  London,  1724-5. 

This  is  a  laborious  compilation,  from  the  most  distinguished 
writers,  whether  Jews  or  Christians,  on  the  manners  and  law? 
of  the  Heb'rews. 

Jewish,  Oriental,  and  Classical  Antiquities ;  containing  Illus- 
trations of  the  Scriptures  and  Classical  Records,  from  Oriental 
Sources.  By  the  Rev.  Daniel  Guildford  Wait,  LL.  B.,  F.  A.  S. 
Vo!  I.  Cambridge,  1823.  8vo. 

The  object  of  this  elaborate  work  is  to  illustrate  Biblical 
and  Classical  Antiquities  from  the  oriental  writings.  This  first 
volume  is  exclusively  devoted  to  a  demonstration  of  the  coinci- 
dence which  subsists  between  these  different  department*  of 
study  ;  and  that  coincidence  the  author  has  satisfactorily  shown 
by  various  examples.  The  subsequent  volumes  are  announced 
to  contain  disquisitions  on  detached  subjects,  and  elucidations 
of  the  text,  and  assertions  of  those  Greek  writers  who  have 
treated  of  Eastern  History,  or  alluded  to  eastern  customs.  Mr. 
Wait  has  long  been  known  to  biblical  students  as  the  author 
of  numerous  valuable  articles  on  sacred  criticism,  which  haw 
appeared  in  different  volumes  of  the  Classical  Journal 

Various  treatises  on  Sacred  Antiquities  have  been  written 
by  different  authors:  of  these  the  following  are  the  most 
valuable. 

The  Manners  of  the  Ancient  Israelites,  containing  an  ac- 
count of  their  peculiar  Customs,  Ceremonies,  Laws,  Polity 
Religion,  Sects,  Arts,  ard  Trades,  &c.  &c  P  r  Claude  Fleurv 
Svo.  London,  1801. 

439 


»•*()  APPENDIX. 

For  (bis  third  and  best  edition,  the  public  arc  indebted  to 
Pr.  Adam  Clarke,  who  has  enlarged  the  original  work  with 
much  valuable-  information,  from  the  principal  writers  on  Jew- 
ish Antiquities.  The  Abbe  Fleury's  work  was  translated 
many  years  since  by  Mr.  Farnworth.  The  late  excellent 
bishop  of  Norwich,  (Dr.  Home,)  has  rcconiunnded  it  in  the 
following  terms  :  "  This  little  book  contains  a  oncise,  plca>ing, 
and  just  account  of  the  manners,  customs,  laws,  policy,  and 
religion  of  the  Israelites.  It  is  an  excellent  introduction  to  the 
reading  of  the  Old  Testament  and  should  be  put  into  the  hands 
of  every  young  person." 

Jewish  Antiquities,  or  a  Course  of  Lectures  on  the  Three 
Brst  books  of  Godwin's  Moses  and  Aaron.  To  which  is  an- 
nexed a  Dissertation  on  the  Hebrew  Language.  By  Jhvid 
.Jennings,  D.  D.  8vo.  2  vols.  London,  1760;  Perth,  1808; 
and  London,  1823,  in  one  volume,  8vo. 

This  work  has  long  held  a  distinguished  character  for  its  ac- 
curacy and  learning,  and  has  been  often  reprinted.  "  The 
Treatises  of  Mr.  Lowman  on  the  Ritual  (8vo.  London,  1748,) 
and  on  the  Civil  Government  of  the  Hebrews,  (8vo.  London, 
1740,)  may  properly  accompany  these  works." 

The  most  elaborate  system  of  Jewish  antiquities,  perhaps, 
that  is  extant,  is  Godwin's  Moses  and  Aaron  ;  a  small  quarts 
volume,  now  rather  scarce :  it  was  formerly  in  great  request 
as  a  text  book,  and  passed  through  many  editions :  the  latest, 
we  believe,  is  that  of  1678.  Numerous  other  treatises  ou 
Hebrew  antiquities  are  to  be  found  in  the  34th  volume  of  Ugo- 
lini's  Thesaurus  Antiquitatum  Hebroearum. 

Jahn's  Biblical  Archaeology  :  An  elaborate  compendium  of 
biblical  antiquities,  abridged  from  the  author's  larger  work,  on 
the  same  subject,  in  the  German  language,  (in  four  large  8vo 
volumes,)  and  arranged  under  the  three  divisions  of  domestic, 
political,  and  ecclesiastical  antiquities.  At  the  end  of  the  vo- 
lume are  upwards  of  sixty  pages  of  questions,  framed  upon 
the  preceding  part  of  the  work  j  the  answers  to  which  are  to  be 
ijiven  by  students.  A  faithful  English  translation  of  "  Jahn  s 
Biblical  Archaeology,  was  published  at  Andover,  (Massachu- 
setts,) in  18'23,  by  T.  C.  Upham,  (assistant  teacher  of  Hebrew 
and  Greek  in  the  Theological  Seminary  at  that  place. ^  with 
valuable  additions  and  corrections,  partly  the  result  of  a  colla 
tion  of  Jahn's  Latin  work  with  the  original  German  treatise 
»ud  partly  derived  from  other  sources. 


APPEMHX.  441 

The  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,  carefully  compiled  from  au- 
thentic sources,  and  tlicir  ''ustoras  illustrated,  l>v  Modern 
Travels.  By  W.  Brown,  D.  D.  London,  18'20,  2  "voJs.  8vo 
-Also,  Philadelphia,  W.  W.  Woodward,  1823. 

This  work  is  exceedingly  rich  in  one  department — viz.  that 
of  Jewish  and  Rabbinical  traditions.  No  book  is  more  full  in 
regard  to  the  whole  routine  of  the  *emple  service,  as  under- 
stood by  the  Jews.  It  is  also  remarkably  adapted  to  con- 
tinuous perusal,  though  it  must  be  owned  the  texture  of  th* 
work  is  careless,  and  the  style  homely. 

Calinet's  Dictionary  of  the  Holy  Bible — Historical,  Criti- 

.•al,   Geographical,   and   Etymological — in   five   vols.   quarto. 

The  same,  abridged  by  Rev.  E.  Robinson,  D.  D.     1  vol. 

royal  8vo. 

A  Cyclopaedia  of  Biblical  Literature,  edited  by  John  Kitto, 
D.  D.,  F.  S.  A.,  &c.  Illustrated  with  numerous  engravings. 
XV*  York.  Mark  H.  Newman.  2  vols.  8vo,  1846. 

Tais  work  is  at  once  learned,  convenient,  and  interesting — 

illy  rich  in  embellishments.     It  is,  however,  the  work 

of  many  hands,  in  Great  Britain  and  some  even  in  Germany ; 

an  i  "f  ihege,  some  are  very  loose  in  their  opinions.      The 

work  is,  therefore,  to  be  used  with  great  discrimination 

Illustrations  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  three  parts.  By  the 
R»;v.  George  Paxton.  Edinburgh,  1819,  2  vols.  8vo.  Re- 
oriuted.  at  Philadelphia,  1821,  2  vols.  8vo. 

Scripture  Costume,  exhibited  in  a  series  of  Engravings,  re- 
pr- •-•;  Mting  the  principal  Personages  mentioned  in  the  Sacred 
Writings.  Drawn  under  the  superintendence  of  the  late  Ben- 
jamin West.  Esq.,  P.  R.  A.,  by  R.  Satchwell ;  with  Biogra- 
pliic&l  Sketches  and  Historical  Remarks  on  the  Manners  and 
Customs  of  Eastern  Nations.  London,  1819.  Elephant  4to. 

Observations  on  divers  Passages  of  Scripture,  placing  many 
of  them  iu  a  light  altogether  new, by  means  of  cir- 
cumstances mentioned  in  Books  of  Voyages  and  Travels  into  the 
Ka?t.  By  the  Rev.  Thomas  Harmer.  London,  1816,  4  volg 
Bvo,  best  edition. 

Ac  books  of  voyages  and  travels  are,  for  the  most  part,  vo 
luiii 'nous,  the  late  reverend  and  learned  Thomas  Harmer  formed 
rlu-  'ic.sign,  which  he  happily  executed,  of  perusing  the  work? 
of  oriental  travellers,  with  the  view  of  extracting  from  thcu> 


442  /  PPENDIX. 

whatever  might  illustrate  the  rites  and  customs  mentioned  in 
the  Scriptures.  His  researches  form  four  volumes  iu  8vo,  and 
VfCif.  published  at  different  times  towards  the  close  (if  the  la.-l 
century.  The  best  edition  is  that  above  noticed,  and  is  edited 
by  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  who  has  newly  arranged  the  whole,  and 
made  many  important  additions  and  corrections.  In  this  work 
numerous  passages  of  Scripture  are  placed  in  a  light  altogether 
new ;  the  meanings  of  others,  which  are  not  discoverable  by 
the  methods  commonly  used  by  interpreters,  are  satisfactorily 
ascertained;  and  many  probable  conjectures  are  offered  to  the 
biblical  student. 

The  Oriental  Guide  to  the  Interpretation  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. Two  Discourses  preached  at  Christ  Church,  Newgate 
street,  with  Illustrative  Notes,  and  an  Apprndix,  containing  a 
general  and  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  best  writers  on  the 
subject.  By  the  Rev.  Samuel  Burder,  A.  M.  London,  1823, 
8v-.. 

Oriental  Customs;  or,  an  Illustration  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures, by  an  explanatory  application  of  the  Customs  and  .Man- 
nets  of  the  Eastern  Nations.  By  the  Rev.  S.  Burder,  Oth  edi- 
tion, 1 822.  2  vols.  8vo. 

This  is  a  useful  abridgment  of  Harmer's  Observations, 
with  many  valuable  additions  from  recent  voyagers  and  tra- 
vehers,  arranged  in  the  order  of  the  books,  chapters,  and  verses 
of  the  Bible.  It  was  translated  into  German  by  Dr.  E.  F.  C. 
Rosenmiiller,  (5  vols.  8vo,  Leipsic,  1819,)  with  material  cor- 
rections, and  much  new  matter.  Such  of  these  as  were  addi- 
tions to  the  articles  contained  in  the  "  Oriental  Customs,"  have 
been  translated  and  inserted  in  the  sixth  edition  above  noticed 
But  those  articles  which  are  entirely  new,  being  founded  on 
texts  not  before  brought  under  Mr.  Burder's  consideration,  are 
translated  and  inserted  in — 

Oriental  Literature  applied  to  the  Illustration  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures ;  especially  with  reference  to  Antiquities,  Traditions, 
and  Manners,  collected  from  the  most  celebrated  Writers  and 
Travellers,  both  ancient  and  modern ;  designed  as  a  Sequel  to 
Oriental  Customs.  By  the  Rev.  Samuel  Burder,  A  M.  Lon- 
uon.  1822,  2  vols.  8vo. 

The  Eastern  Mirror;  an  Illustration  of  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tu"?^;  io  which  the  Customs  of  Or icnf:;l  N ,:!">ns  arc  clearly  de- 
reioped  by  the  Writings  ot  the  most  celebraied  Travellers.  By 
the  Rev.  W.  Fowler.  8vo.  Exeter,  1814. 


APPENDIX.  4i& 

An  Abridgment  of  Banner's  Observations,  and  the  earlier 
editions  of  Burder's  Oriental  Customs,  with  a  few  unimportant 
additions. 

*,*  The  mode  of  illustrating  Scripture  from  oriental  voyages  and 
travels,  first  applied  by  Harmer,  has  been  successfully  followed  bj 
the  laborious  editor  of  the  "  Fragments,"  annexed  to  the  quarto  edi- 
tion? of  Calmet's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  and  also  by  Mr.  Vansittart 
in  his  "Observations  on  Select  Places  of  the  Old  Testament,  founded 
On  a  perusal  of  Parsons's  Travel))  from  Aleppo  to  Bagdad."  8vo. 
Oxford  and  London,  1812. 

Josephus's  Antiquities  of  the  Jews.     1  vol.  8vo. 

Introduction  to  the  Critical  Study  and  Knowledge  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  By  Thomas  Hartwell  Home.  4  vols.  8vo. 
Various  editions. 

Popular  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
By  William_Carpenter.  1  vol.  8vo. 

The  Union  Bible  Dictionary ;  or,  Complete  Biblical  Cyclo 
paedia.  With  maps  and  several  hundred  illustrations.  Con- 
taining an  explanation  of  all  the  words  used  in  the  Bible 
which  are  not  self-explained,  or  the  force  and  meaning  of 
which  may  not  be  learned  from  a  common  Dictionary.  Am**- 
rican  Sunday-school  Union.  1  vol.  8vo,  and  18 mo. 

The  Natural  History  of  the  Bible.  By  Francis  A.  Ewing, 
M.  D.  American  Sunday-school  Union.  1  vol.  18mo,  with 
numerous  illustrations. 

Scripture  Illustrations — of  the  Agriculture,  Dwellings, 
Meals,  Books,  Tents,  Sacred  Utensils,  Altars,  Customs  of 
War,  Worship,  &c.  4  vols.  18mo.  American  Sunday-school 
Union. 

Hebrew  Customs.    18mo.    American  Sunday-school  (Jniou 

Evening  Recreations.  A  series  of  dialogues,  embracing : — 
The  Geography  and  General  Description  of  Palestine. — His- 
tory of  the  Patriarchs  and  their  Families. — History  of  the  Is- 
raelites in  Egypt;  their  deliverance  from  bondage;  and  an 
account  of  their  laws. — The  Jewish  Service ;  the  Conquest  of 
Canaan ;  and  its  Division  among  the  Tribes.  4  vols.  18m<v 
American  Sunday-school  Union. 


444  APPENDIX. 

ON   THE   DIVISIONS   OCCURRING   IN   THE    BIBLE. 

The  OH  Te.-tinnent  resolves  itself  into  two  grand  divisions — 
the  Cnnuiii'-iil  n\\\\  Apocryphal  hunks:  the  former  were  written 
under  the  guidance  of  Divine  inspiration;  are  part  of  the  rule 
i»f  faith  and  conduct  of  Christians ;  and  have  ever  been  undis- 
puted as  regards  their  authority  :  the  latter  are  of  no  Divine 
authority,  and  are  only  useful  as  historical  documents.  The 
books  of  the  Maccabees  are  of  considerable  value,  as  helping 
to  till  up  the  history  of  that  interval  of  time  which  elapsed 
between  the  ceasing  of  prophecy  and  the  advent  of  the  >!••>- 
siah.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  some  of  the  Apocryphal  book" 
contain  gross  and  palpable  perversions  of  truth,  and  some  de- 
tails of  an  indelicate  nature. 

The  Jewish  church  divided  the  canonical  books  into  three 
classes,  under  which  form  they  were  generally  referred  to  and 
quoted.  These  were  denominated  THE  LAW,  THE  PROPHETS, 
and  the  HAGIOORAPHA,  or  holy  writings.  THE  LAW  contained 
the  five  books  of  Moses,  frequently  called  the  /'<  >itufi-u<-h,  i.  e. 
'.he  five  books.  THE  PROPHETS  comprised  the  whole  of  the 
wri trigs  now  termed  prophetical — from  Isaiah  to  Malaehi  in- 
i-lusively — and  also  the  books  of  Job,  Joshua,  Judges,  Ruth, 
Samuel,  Kings,  Chronicles,  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  Esther;  these 
books  having  been  either  written  or  revised  by  prophets — pro- 
bably the  former.  THE  HAOIOORAPHA  included  the  Psalms, 
Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  Song  of  Solomon.  It  is  pro- 
bable that  our  Saviour  alluded  to  this  division  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament when  he  said,  "  All  things  must  be  fulfilled  which  are 
written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the 
Psalms,  concerning  me,"  (Luke  xxiv.  44;)  for  the  />T/?.J.I 
standing  first  in  this  collection  of  books,  gave  its  name  to  the 
division. 

Since  the  completion  of  the  canon  of  the  entire  Scriptures, 
the  general  or  principal  division  adopted  is  that  of  the  O(<t  mid 
New  Testament.  The  books  included  under  each  of  these  divi- 
sions are  too  familiar  to  every  reader  to  need  repetition  here. 
It  must  be  observed,  however,  that  the  order  of  the  books,  aa 
placed  in  our  translation,  is  not  according  to  the  times  in  which 
they  were  written,  or  the  course  of  the  history  to  which  they 
relate.  Tne  several  bx)ks  stand  as  unconnected  and  indepen- 
dent documents. 

The  division  into  chapter  and  verse  is  a  modern  invention 
which  it  is  tu  be  regretted  should  ever  have  assumed  a  higher 
character  than  convenient  divisions  for  the  purposes  of  refer- 
ence and  quotation.  They  should  be  totally  disregarded  ir 
residing  the  Bible. 


APPENDIX  44.1 

OF   THE   BOOKS   OF   THE   NEW   TESTA MKNT. 

The  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  divisible  into  thn-» 
jlasscs — HISTORICAL,  DOCTRINAL,  and  PROPHETICAL.  The 
first  embraces  the  four  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Ap<»tl<--  . 
the  second  includes  the  Apostolic  Epistles ;  and  the  last,  the 
book  of  Revelation.  We  do  not  mean,  however,  that  eithei 
of  these  classes  excludes  the  subjects  of  the  other :  like  all 
the  other  sacred  books,  those  of  the  New  Testament  are  of  a 
mixed  nature,  and  contain  /u'xtory,  prophecy,  and  doctrine. 

In  the  second  and  third  centuries  the  New  Testament  was 
divided  into  two  parts — the  Gospels  and  the  Epistle*,  or  Go*- 
l»:l»  and  Apristles.  Other  divisions  have  obtained  in  subse- 
quent ages,  with  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  trouble  the  r«-;i<l'T. 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  is  called  in  the  Greek,  H  KAINH 
AIA0HKH,(e  Kaine  Diatheke,)  the  New  fbtOMCHfOf  f '"nmnii, 
a  title  which  was  early  borrowed  by  the  Church  from  the  Scrip- 
tures, ("Matt.  xxvi.  28,  Gal.  iii.  17,  Heb.  viii.  8,  ix.  15,  20,) 
and  authorized  by  the  apostle  Paul,  2  Cor.  iii.  14.  The  word 
bioO^x*!,  in  these  passages,  denotes  a  cocen<int ;  and  in  this 
view  THE  NEW  COVENANT  signifies,  "  A  book  containing  the 
tenns  of  the  new  covenant  between  God  and  man."  But,  ac- 
cording to  the  meaning  of  the  primitive  church,  which  adopted 
this  title,  it  is  not  altogether  improperly  rendered  NEW  TES- 
TAMENT; as  being  that  wherein  the  Christian's  inheritance  is 
sealed  to  him  as  a  son  and  heir  of  God,  and  wherein  the  death 
of  Christ  as  a  testator  (Heb.  ix.  16,  17)  is  related  at  large 
and  applied  to  our  benefit.  As  this  title  implies  that  in  the 
gMftel  unspeakable  gifts  are  bequeathed  to  us,  antecedent  to 
all  conditions  required  of  us,  the  title  of  TESTAMENT  may  be 
retained,  though  that  of  COVENANT  is  more  exact  and  proper. 

The  term  GOSPEL,  which  is  more  generally  applied  to  the 
writings  of  the  four  Evangelists,  comprising  a  history  of  the 
;ransactions  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  not  unfrequently  used 
in  a  more  extended  sense,  as  including  the  whole  of  the  New 
Testament  scriptures,  and  also  that  system  of  grace  and  mercy 
which  they  unfold.  This  word,  which  exactly  answers  to  the 
Greek  term  KvayyfXiov,  is  derived  from  the  Saxon  word,  God, 
(Good.)  and  gpel,  (speech  or  tidings,)  and  is  evidently  intended 
to  denote  the  good  message,  or  the  "  glad  tidings  of  great  joy" 
which  God  has  sent  to  all  mankind,  "  preaching  peace  by  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  Lord  of  all,"  Acts  x.  36. 

Concerning  the  order  of  the  New  Testament  books,  biblical 
writers  are  by  no  means  agreed.  The  following  table  is  com- 
piled from  Mr.  Townsend's  Chronological  Arrangement,  where 
the  conflicting  opinions  of  chionologists  huve  been  considered 
ir.d  drcidcd  upon  with  groat  cart-  an«l  judgment  : — 


<40 


APPENDIX. 


Book. 

Author. 

Place  at  whifh  it 
wot  written. 

/br  wHott  ute  pri- 
marily intended 

A.D 

Gospel    of    Mat- 
thew 
Murk 

Matthew 
Mark 

Judea 
Rome  and  Je- 
rusalem 

Jews  in  Judea 
Gentile  Chris- 
tians 

37 
4-1 

Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles 

Luke 

_ 

Epistle  to  the  Ga- 
latians 

Paul 

Thessalonica 

51 

First  to  the  Thes- 

salonians 



Corinth 

— 

Second     to     the 
Thessalonians 
Epistle  to  Titus 
First  to  the  Cor. 
First  Epistle    to 
Timothy 
Second  Epistle  to 
the  Corinth. 
Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans 

62 
63 
66 

66  or  b\ 
68 



Nicopolis 
Ephesus 

Macedonia 
Philippt 
Corinth 



—  to  the  Ephes. 
to  the  Philip 



Rome 

Jewish  Chris- 

61 
62 

to  the  Colos 

to  Philemon 

—  of  James 

James 

Jerusalem 

tians 

— 

Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews 
Gospel      of     St. 
Luke 

Paul 
Luke 

Italy 
Achaia 

Jews 
Gentile     con- 

— 

verts 

G4 

Second  Epistle  !o 
Timothy 
First    Epistle    of 
Peter 

Paul 
Peter 

Jews  and  Gen- 

65 or  Of 

tile  converts 

— 

Second  Epistle  of 
Peter 



Italy  or  Rome 

Jewish  &  Gen- 
tile    Chris- 

tians of  the 

Epistle  to  Jude 

Book  of  Revela- 
tion 
Three  Epistles  of 
John 
Qf>Buel  according 
to  John 

Jude 
John 

Probably 
Syria 

Asia  Minor 

Dispersion 
General 

66 
96 
96  tc  lOt 

i 





APPENDIX.  *41 

That  all  the  books  which  convey  to  us  the  history  of  evente 
ander  the  New  Testament,  were  written  and  immediately  pub- 
lished by  perrons  contemporary  with  the  events,  is  fully  proved 
by  the  testimony  or  an  unbroken  series  of  authors,  reaching 
from  the  days  of  the  Evangelists  to  the  present  times;  by  the 
concurrent  belief  of  Christians  of  all  denominations,  and  by 
the  unreserved  confession  of  avowed  enemies  to  the  gospel 
In  this  point  of  view  the  writings  of  the  ancient  Fathers  of 
the  Christian  Church  are  invaluable.  They  contain  not  only 
frequent  references  and  allusions  to  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  but  also  such  numerous  professed  quotations  from 
them,  that  it  is  demonstrably  certain,  that  these  books  existed 
in  their  present  state  a  few  jears  after  the  conclusion  of  our 
Saviour's  ministry.  No  unbeliever  in  the  Apostolic  age,  in 
the  age  immediately  subsequent  to  it,  or  indeed  in  any  age 
whatever,  was  ever  able  to  disprove  the  facts  recorded  in  these 
books ;  and  it  does  not  appear  that  in  the  early  times  any  such 
attempt  was  made.  The  facts  therefore  related  in  the  New 
Testan-cnt,  must  be  admitted  to  have  really  happened ;  and 
these  abundantly  prove  the  divine  mission  of  Christ,  and  the 
aa..ed  origin  and  authority  of  the  Christian  religion. 


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